ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.28 Per Share

ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) announced a semi-annual dividend on Monday, March 17th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 13th will be given a dividend of 0.275 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, December 3rd. This represents a dividend yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a 29.1% increase from ArcelorMittal’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.21.

ArcelorMittal has increased its dividend by an average of 18.6% annually over the last three years. ArcelorMittal has a dividend payout ratio of 9.9% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect ArcelorMittal to earn $5.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 9.7%.

ArcelorMittal Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of MT opened at $32.50 on Wednesday. ArcelorMittal has a 1-year low of $20.52 and a 1-year high of $34.90. The company has a 50-day moving average of $27.22 and a 200 day moving average of $25.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.70, a PEG ratio of 0.14 and a beta of 1.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17, a current ratio of 1.35 and a quick ratio of 0.59.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.52 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.61 by ($0.09). ArcelorMittal had a net margin of 2.14% and a return on equity of 4.31%. On average, research analysts expect that ArcelorMittal will post 3.72 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, Morgan Stanley lowered ArcelorMittal from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 14th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.17.

About ArcelorMittal

ArcelorMittal SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as integrated steel and mining companies in the United States, Europe, and internationally. It offers semi-finished flat products, including slabs; finished flat products comprising plates, hot- and cold-rolled coils and sheets, hot-dipped and electro-galvanized coils and sheets, tinplate, and color coated coils and sheets; semi-finished long products, such as blooms and billets; finished long products consisting of bars, wire-rods, structural sections, rails, sheet piles, and wire-products; and seamless and welded pipes and tubes.