ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Shares of ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $56.64, but opened at $53.97. ArcelorMittal shares last traded at $52.22, with a volume of 346,587 shares traded.

Analyst Ratings Changes

MT has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised ArcelorMittal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $51.10 to $73.20 in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Santander raised shares of ArcelorMittal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 5th. Oddo Bhf upgraded shares of ArcelorMittal from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 14th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ArcelorMittal in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating on shares of ArcelorMittal in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $51.98.

ArcelorMittal Price Performance

The company has a 50-day moving average of $56.46 and a 200-day moving average of $45.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.11, a P/E/G ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 0.53 and a current ratio of 1.36.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.56 by $0.30. The company had revenue of $14.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $15.56 billion. ArcelorMittal had a return on equity of 5.27% and a net margin of 5.14%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect that ArcelorMittal will post 3.72 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ArcelorMittal Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 2nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.15 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. ArcelorMittal’s payout ratio is 12.44%.

Institutional Trading of ArcelorMittal

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in ArcelorMittal by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,220,992 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $146,780,000 after acquiring an additional 49,614 shares during the period. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. increased its stake in ArcelorMittal by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 1,630,600 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $74,306,000 after purchasing an additional 485,400 shares during the last quarter. UBS Group AG increased its stake in ArcelorMittal by 405.2% in the third quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 1,181,358 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $42,706,000 after purchasing an additional 947,532 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in ArcelorMittal by 15.6% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 947,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $34,267,000 after buying an additional 128,045 shares during the period. Finally, Retirement Systems of Alabama purchased a new stake in ArcelorMittal in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,721,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 9.29% of the company’s stock.

ArcelorMittal Company Profile

ArcelorMittal is a multinational steel manufacturing company formed in 2006 through the merger of Arcelor and Mittal Steel. Headquartered in Luxembourg, the company is one of the world’s largest producers of steel and operates an integrated value chain that spans raw material extraction, steelmaking, processing and distribution. Its product portfolio includes flat and long carbon steel products, coated and specialty steels, tubular products and value-added solutions tailored for sectors such as automotive, construction, household appliances, energy and packaging.

ArcelorMittal’s operations are global in scope, with production facilities, distribution networks and commercial activities across Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Commonwealth of Independent States.