Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Acquires 272,549 Shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC increased its holdings in shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 1,706.6% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 288,519 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 272,549 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in Gerdau were worth $952,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in GGB. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gerdau in the 1st quarter valued at about $44,000. Prosperity Consulting Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Gerdau during the 1st quarter worth approximately $53,000. KCM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Gerdau in the first quarter valued at $54,000. IPG Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gerdau during the 4th quarter worth about $55,000. Finally, Abacus Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Gerdau during the first quarter worth $59,000. Institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Gerdau Price Performance

GGB stock opened at $3.37 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $7.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.74. Gerdau S.A. has a 52-week low of $2.92 and a 52-week high of $4.38. 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 quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.83.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last issued 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. Gerdau had a return on equity of 8.43% and a net margin of 7.88%. The firm had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.53%. This is a positive change from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.11%.

About Gerdau

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.