ArcelorMittal (NYSE:MT – Get Free Report) and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal (OTCMKTS:NPSCY – Get Free Report) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their institutional ownership, dividends, profitability, risk, valuation, earnings and analyst recommendations.
Risk & Volatility
ArcelorMittal has a beta of 1.72, suggesting that its stock price is 72% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal has a beta of 0.77, suggesting that its stock price is 23% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Profitability
This table compares ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| ArcelorMittal | 4.11% | 4.99% | 2.90% |
| Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal | -0.42% | -0.61% | -0.30% |
Earnings & Valuation
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| ArcelorMittal | $61.10 billion | 0.54 | $1.34 billion | $3.36 | 12.09 |
| Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal | $57.10 billion | 0.38 | $2.31 billion | ($0.02) | -202.50 |
Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal has lower revenue, but higher earnings than ArcelorMittal. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than ArcelorMittal, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a summary of recent ratings for ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, as reported by MarketBeat.com.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| ArcelorMittal | 0 | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2.40 |
| Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
ArcelorMittal currently has a consensus price target of $34.95, indicating a potential downside of 13.98%. Given ArcelorMittal’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe ArcelorMittal is more favorable than Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal.
Institutional and Insider Ownership
9.3% of ArcelorMittal shares are held by institutional investors. 0.1% of ArcelorMittal shares are held by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.
Dividends
ArcelorMittal pays an annual dividend of $0.46 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal pays an annual dividend of $0.14 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. ArcelorMittal pays out 13.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal pays out -700.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.
Summary
ArcelorMittal beats Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal on 13 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.
About ArcelorMittal
ArcelorMittal S.A., 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. The company also provides mining products, such as iron ore lumps, fines, concentrates, pellets, and sinter feeds; and coking coal. It sells its products to various customers in the automotive, appliance, engineering, construction, energy, and machinery industries through a centralized marketing organization, as well as distributors. The company has iron ore mining activities in Brazil, Bosnia, Canada, Liberia, Mexico, South Africa, and Ukraine. ArcelorMittal S.A. was founded in 1976 and is headquartered in Luxembourg City, Luxembourg.
About Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal
Nippon Steel Corporation engages in steelmaking and steel fabrication, engineering and construction, chemicals and materials, and system solutions businesses in Japan and internationally. The company offers steel plates, sheets, and slags; bar and rod materials; structural steel; pipes and tubes; titanium and stainless products; and railway, automotive, and machinery parts for applications in automotive, energy, infrastructure, and consumer electronics markets. It is also involved in construction; waste processing and recycling; supplying electricity, gas, and heat; and the provision of coal-based chemical products, petrochemicals, electronic materials, materials and components for semiconductors and electronic parts, carbon fiber, and composite products. In addition, the company offers computer systems engineering and consulting, IT-enabled outsourcing, and other services. The company was formerly known as Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation and changed its name to Nippon Steel Corporation in April 2019. The company was incorporated in 1950 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.
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