Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Short Interest Update

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) was the recipient of a significant increase in short interest in April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,910,000 shares, an increase of 109.1% from the March 31st total of 1,870,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 8,360,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.5 days. Approximately 0.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $5.00 to $6.00 in a research note on Monday, April 15th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Gerdau by 233,911.9% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,559,513 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,839,000 after acquiring an additional 21,550,300 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of Gerdau by 7.3% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,708,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $444,788,000 after purchasing an additional 6,268,313 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Gerdau by 92.5% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,520,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,563,000 after purchasing an additional 2,172,396 shares during the period. Moneda S.A. Administradora General de Fondos grew its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 36.8% in the third quarter. Moneda S.A. Administradora General de Fondos now owns 4,759,360 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $22,702,000 after purchasing an additional 1,280,989 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its stake in Gerdau by 12.0% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 10,352,092 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $49,379,000 after buying an additional 1,109,470 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GGB traded up $0.12 on Friday, reaching $3.61. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 6,893,670 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,441,841. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.43. Gerdau has a 52-week low of $3.42 and a 52-week high of $5.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 2.59. The company has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 1.73.

Gerdau shares are going to split on the morning of Tuesday, April 30th. The 6-5 split was announced on Tuesday, April 30th. The newly issued shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, April 30th.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter. Gerdau had a return on equity of 15.05% and a net margin of 10.80%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Gerdau will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 5th were given a $0.0202 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 4th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.24%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is presently 10.00%.

Gerdau Company Profile

Gerdau SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer company. It operates through Brazil Business, North America Business, South America Business, and Special Steel Business divisions. The company 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.