Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) Stock Price Crosses Above 200 Day Moving Average – What’s Next?

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB)’s share price passed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $3.10 and traded as high as $3.60. Gerdau shares last traded at $3.5850, with a volume of 5,495,146 shares.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have weighed in on GGB shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Gerdau in a research report on Monday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Gerdau presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.80.

Gerdau Stock Up 2.7%

The stock has a market cap of $7.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.46. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $3.36 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $3.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 1.50.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.11 by ($0.01). Gerdau had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 6.51%. The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.81 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.0521 dividend. This represents a $0.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.8%. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. Gerdau’s payout ratio is 70.37%.

Institutional Trading of Gerdau

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GGB. Strs Ohio purchased a new position in shares of Gerdau during the first quarter valued at approximately $737,000. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Gerdau during the 1st quarter valued at $30,134,000. Jump Financial LLC boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 48.2% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 391,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 127,319 shares during the last quarter. LGT Group Foundation purchased a new position in Gerdau during the 1st quarter worth $354,000. Finally, Kawa Capital Management Inc bought a new stake in shares of Gerdau in the 1st quarter worth $6,011,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

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.