Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of ArcelorMittal Call Options (NYSE:MT)

ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders purchased 4,829 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 26% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,822 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in ArcelorMittal by 221.3% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 3,403,048 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $78,712,000 after buying an additional 2,344,020 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in ArcelorMittal by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,029,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $70,061,000 after purchasing an additional 91,363 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of ArcelorMittal by 146.7% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,535,319 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,512,000 after acquiring an additional 912,984 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its position in shares of ArcelorMittal by 31.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,153,924 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,690,000 after purchasing an additional 277,891 shares during the period. Finally, Causeway Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of ArcelorMittal by 12.8% in the fourth quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC now owns 1,067,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $24,689,000 after acquiring an additional 121,155 shares in the last quarter. 9.29% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley lowered ArcelorMittal from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 14th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded ArcelorMittal from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $36.20 price objective for the company. in a report on Wednesday, March 26th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group upgraded shares of ArcelorMittal from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $29.00 to $31.70 in a report on Thursday. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $32.95.

ArcelorMittal Stock Up 5.2 %

Shares of NYSE:MT opened at $26.82 on Friday. ArcelorMittal has a 12-month low of $20.52 and a 12-month high of $34.90. The company has a current ratio of 1.35, a quick ratio of 0.59 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.17. The firm has a market cap of $21.97 billion, a PE ratio of 16.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.14 and a beta of 1.60. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.07 and a 200 day simple moving average of $25.99.

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

ArcelorMittal Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 3rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 13th will be paid a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, November 12th. This represents a yield of 1.5%. ArcelorMittal’s payout ratio is currently 27.88%.

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.