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

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) saw a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,400,000 shares, an increase of 12.5% from the August 31st total of 5,690,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,400,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 1.0 days. Currently, 0.5% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of Gerdau

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Capital International Investors lifted its stake in Gerdau by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,708,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $444,788,000 after acquiring an additional 6,268,313 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 1,988.2% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 6,186,152 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,414,000 after purchasing an additional 5,889,913 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Gerdau by 48.1% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 13,391,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $44,181,000 after purchasing an additional 4,351,666 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Gerdau by 15.1% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,005,117 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $52,825,000 after purchasing an additional 2,100,969 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC bought a new position in Gerdau during the second quarter worth about $6,085,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Stock Performance

NYSE GGB remained flat at $3.48 during trading on Friday. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 25,072,572 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,807,111. Gerdau has a 12-month low of $2.92 and a 12-month high of $4.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $3.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.39. The firm has a market cap of $7.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.70 and a beta of 1.74.

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

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.055 per share. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.32%. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.11%.

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.