Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Stock Has Average Target Price of $5.57 According to Analysts

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nine brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $5.57.

A number of analysts have recently commented on GGB shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded Gerdau from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. HSBC downgraded Gerdau from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 20th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $6.10 target price (up from $5.70) on shares of Gerdau in a research report on Thursday, August 27th. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Gerdau to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Itau BBA Securities lowered shares of Gerdau from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Rafael Japur sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.10, for a total transaction of $51,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer owned 86,967 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $443,531.70. The trade was a 10.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Chairman Claudio Johannpeter sold 85,607 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $4.94, for a total transaction of $422,898.58. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold a total of 147,407 shares of company stock worth $737,561 over the last 90 days. 0.02% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gerdau

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GGB. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Gerdau by 11.9% in the first quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 30,100 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $109,000 after acquiring an additional 3,196 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of Gerdau by 1.9% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 176,888 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $715,000 after acquiring an additional 3,292 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Gerdau by 5.7% in the first quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 76,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 4,151 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Gerdau by 57.6% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State of Wyoming increased its position in shares of Gerdau by 36.1% during the first quarter. State of Wyoming now owns 32,986 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $119,000 after purchasing an additional 8,758 shares in the last quarter. 1.49% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gerdau Price Performance

NYSE:GGB opened at $5.08 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 2.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. Gerdau has a 52 week low of $3.14 and a 52 week high of $5.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $4.89 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.66. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.96 billion, a PE ratio of 12.48 and a beta of 1.48.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15. The company had revenue of $3.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.41 billion. Gerdau had a return on equity of 7.97% and a net margin of 3.37%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Gerdau will post 0.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st were issued a dividend of $0.0448 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 21st. This is a positive change from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0361. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. Gerdau’s payout ratio is 65.22%.

About Gerdau

Gerdau SA is a Brazil-based steel producer with operations across the Americas. The company manufactures and sells steel products for the construction, industrial, automotive, agricultural and infrastructure markets.

Its product portfolio includes long steel products such as rebar, wire rod, merchant bars and structural shapes, as well as special steel used in automotive and industrial applications. Gerdau also produces flat steel and semi-finished products, including billets and slabs, and operates steel mills, scrap-processing facilities and related distribution networks.

Founded in 1901, Gerdau has grown from a regional Brazilian steelmaker into an international producer serving customers in Brazil, North America and other parts of Latin America.