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

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) saw a large drop in short interest in 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 company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 6,100,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 0.9 days.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Gerdau Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of NYSE GGB traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $3.39. The stock had a trading volume of 13,950,628 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,703,447. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $3.26 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.40. Gerdau has a 1 year low of $2.92 and a 1 year high of $4.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market cap of $7.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.56 and a beta of 1.74.

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

Gerdau Increases Dividend

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gerdau

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in GGB. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in Gerdau by 1,706.6% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 288,519 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $952,000 after acquiring an additional 272,549 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co boosted its stake in shares of Gerdau by 20.0% during the 2nd 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 in the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position 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 buying an additional 8,826 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Gerdau by 27.6% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30,308 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $100,000 after buying 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 buying an additional 179,988 shares during the period. 1.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.