United States Steel Co. Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.05 (NYSE:X)

United States Steel Co. (NYSE:X) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, October 31st, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th will be given a dividend of 0.05 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $0.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.51%.

United States Steel has increased its dividend by an average of 71.0% per year over the last three years. United States Steel has a dividend payout ratio of 7.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect United States Steel to earn $2.55 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 7.8%.

United States Steel Price Performance

Shares of X traded down $0.68 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $38.85. 3,387,758 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,346,926. The company has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a PE ratio of 17.45 and a beta of 1.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 1.72 and a quick ratio of 1.14. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $36.48 and a 200-day simple moving average of $37.71. United States Steel has a one year low of $26.92 and a one year high of $50.20.

United States Steel (NYSE:X) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The basic materials company reported $0.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.12. United States Steel had a return on equity of 7.93% and a net margin of 3.40%. The company had revenue of $4.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $4.01 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.92 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 17.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that United States Steel will post 2.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on United States Steel from $48.00 to $49.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on United States Steel from $47.00 to $41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. BNP Paribas upgraded United States Steel from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $40.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday, September 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded United States Steel from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the company from $40.00 to $42.00 in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Glj Research upgraded United States Steel from a “sell” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $38.57 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, September 9th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, United States Steel has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $40.62.

About United States Steel

United States Steel Corporation produces and sells flat-rolled and tubular steel products primarily in North America and Europe. The company operates through North American Flat-Rolled (Flat-Rolled), Mini Mill, U. S. Steel Europe (USSE), and Tubular Products (Tubular) segments. The Flat-Rolled segment offers slabs, strip mill plates, sheets, and tin mill products, as well as iron ore and coke.