Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Short Interest Down 8.1% in August

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) saw a large drop in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,690,000 shares, a drop of 8.1% from the August 15th total of 6,190,000 shares. Currently, 0.4% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 6,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.9 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gerdau

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in Gerdau by 1,706.6% in the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 288,519 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $952,000 after buying an additional 272,549 shares in the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 20.0% during the second quarter. Diversified Trust Co now owns 41,560 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $137,000 after purchasing an additional 6,926 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Gerdau by 97.2% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 17,905 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 8,826 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Gerdau by 27.6% during the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30,308 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 6,558 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 15.7% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,324,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,369,000 after purchasing an additional 179,988 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Stock Performance

NYSE:GGB traded up $0.02 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $3.39. 13,950,625 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,703,452. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $3.26 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 1.36. Gerdau has a twelve month low of $2.92 and a twelve month high of $4.31.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 8.43%. On average, analysts expect that Gerdau will post 0.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a $0.055 dividend. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.49%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is 13.11%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Bank of America raised shares of Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $4.50 to $5.00 in a research report on Friday, May 24th.

Gerdau Company Profile

Gerdau SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer company. The company operates through Brazil Business, North America Business, South America Business, and Special Steel Business segments. It also provides semi-finished products, including billets, blooms, and slabs; common long rolled products, such as rebars, wire rods, merchant bars, light shapes, and profiles to the construction and manufacturing industries; drawn products comprising barbed and barbless fence wires, galvanized wires, fences, concrete reinforcing wire mesh, nails, and clamps for manufacturing, construction, and agricultural industries; and special steel products used in auto parts, light and heavy vehicles, and agricultural machinery, as well as in the oil and gas, wind energy, machinery and equipment, mining and rail, and other markets.