Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $5.57

Shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) have earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the nine analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $5.57.

GGB has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. UBS Group restated a “buy” rating and set a $6.10 price target (up from $5.70) on shares of Gerdau in a report on Thursday, August 27th. Itau BBA Securities cut shares of Gerdau from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 10th. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered Gerdau to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 24th. Bank of America cut Gerdau from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.10 price target for the company. in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Gerdau from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 5th.

Insider Transactions at Gerdau

In other news, CFO Rafael Japur sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, August 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $5.10, for a total value of $51,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 86,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $443,531.70. The trade was a 10.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Rafael Lopes sold 51,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.09, for a total transaction of $263,662.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 83,399 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $424,500.91. This represents a 38.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 147,407 shares of company stock worth $737,561. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gerdau

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. grew its holdings in Gerdau by 49.2% in the 4th quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 24,211,588 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $89,341,000 after buying an additional 7,982,296 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 11,393.6% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 13,222,623 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,734,000 after buying an additional 13,107,580 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Gerdau by 76.1% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,936,524 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,481,000 after acquiring an additional 4,725,200 shares during the period. Engineers Gate Manager LP boosted its position in shares of Gerdau by 124.7% in the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 7,010,275 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,322,000 after acquiring an additional 3,890,093 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new stake in shares of Gerdau in the second quarter valued at approximately $16,291,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Trading Down 2.8%

Shares of NYSE GGB opened at $4.64 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $9.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.20 and a beta of 1.49. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $4.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.47. Gerdau has a 52 week low of $3.07 and a 52 week high of $5.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.87.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.15. The firm had revenue of $3.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.41 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 3.37% and a return on equity of 7.97%. On average, research analysts predict that Gerdau will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.18 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0361. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 21st. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is 65.22%.

Gerdau Company Profile

Gerdau SA is a Brazilian steel producer and one of the major suppliers of long steel in the Americas. The company manufactures products including rebar, wire rod, structural shapes, merchant bars and other steel products used in construction, infrastructure, industrial manufacturing and agricultural equipment.

Gerdau also produces special steel for the automotive, machinery and other industrial sectors, as well as flat steel products through its operations in Brazil. Its business includes steel recycling, with a significant portion of its production based on ferrous scrap, and the company operates a network of steel mills, fabrication facilities and distribution centers.

Founded in Brazil in 1901, Gerdau serves customers across Brazil, North America and South America.