Short Interest in ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) Increases By 29.6%

ArcelorMittal S.A. (NYSE:MT) saw a significant growth in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 5,480,000 shares, a growth of 29.6% from the September 30th total of 4,230,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,640,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.3 days. Currently, 0.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on MT. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of ArcelorMittal from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $31.00 in a report on Wednesday, August 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of ArcelorMittal from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Finally, Barclays raised ArcelorMittal from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, ArcelorMittal has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $30.30.

Institutional Trading of ArcelorMittal

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MT. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. bought a new position in ArcelorMittal in the 1st quarter valued at $36,406,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its stake in ArcelorMittal by 2,038.3% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 822,426 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $18,858,000 after buying an additional 783,965 shares during the period. MMCAP International Inc. SPC grew its position in ArcelorMittal by 103.4% during the first quarter. MMCAP International Inc. SPC now owns 650,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,950,000 after buying an additional 330,820 shares in the last quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in ArcelorMittal in the 2nd quarter worth about $12,679,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in ArcelorMittal by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 225,420 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,169,000 after acquiring an additional 3,994 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 9.88% of the company’s stock.

ArcelorMittal Stock Performance

ArcelorMittal stock traded down $0.12 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $24.82. The stock had a trading volume of 1,250,862 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,595,820. The company has a quick ratio of 0.66, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $23.90 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.09. ArcelorMittal has a 1 year low of $20.52 and a 1 year high of $29.01. The stock has a market cap of $19.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.77.

ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.12 by ($0.49). The business had revenue of $16.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $16.32 billion. ArcelorMittal had a negative net margin of 0.93% and a positive return on equity of 6.00%. ArcelorMittal’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $2.20 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that ArcelorMittal will post 3 EPS for the current year.

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.