Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Stock Holdings Lifted by Leuthold Group LLC

Leuthold Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 18.3% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 48,828 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,549 shares during the period. Leuthold Group LLC’s holdings in Gerdau were worth $161,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of GGB. Capital International Investors raised 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 period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased 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 worth $44,181,000 after purchasing an additional 4,351,666 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Gerdau by 15.1% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 16,005,117 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $52,825,000 after buying an additional 2,100,969 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in Gerdau during the second quarter valued at about $6,085,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 27.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,752,405 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,083,000 after buying an additional 599,700 shares during the period. 1.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Gerdau Trading Up 0.7 %

NYSE:GGB opened at $3.42 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.20 billion, a PE ratio of 5.60 and a beta of 1.74. Gerdau S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $2.92 and a fifty-two week high of $4.31. 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 stock’s 50-day moving average is $3.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.40.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.02. Gerdau had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 8.43%. The firm had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 $0.055 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.44%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is 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.