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

Shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) have been given a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $5.57.

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on GGB shares. The Goldman Sachs Group lowered shares of Gerdau to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Gerdau to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 17th. HSBC lowered shares of Gerdau from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Itau BBA Securities cut shares of Gerdau from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 10th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Gerdau from $6.00 to $6.50 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 4th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Rafael Lopes sold 51,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $5.09, for a total value of $263,662.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 83,399 shares in the company, valued at approximately $424,500.91. This represents a 38.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Rafael Japur sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief financial officer owned 86,967 shares in the company, valued at approximately $443,531.70. The trade was a 10.31% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 147,407 shares of company stock valued at $737,561. 0.02% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Gerdau

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ninety One UK Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of Gerdau during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $145,390,000. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. bought a new position in Gerdau in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $70,663,000. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 11,393.6% in the 1st 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 period. Ninety One North America Inc. bought a new position in Gerdau in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $38,760,000. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its stake in Gerdau by 76.1% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 10,936,524 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,481,000 after buying an additional 4,725,200 shares in the last quarter. 1.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Gerdau Stock Up 0.5%

GGB stock opened at $5.09 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $10.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.15 and a beta of 1.48. The company has a current ratio of 2.87, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.89 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.67. Gerdau has a 1-year low of $3.14 and a 1-year high of $5.48.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.15. The firm had revenue of $3.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.41 billion. Gerdau had a return on equity of 7.97% and a net margin of 3.37%. Analysts expect that Gerdau will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 18th. Investors of record on Friday, August 21st were issued a $0.0448 dividend. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0361. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 21st. This represents a $0.18 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.5%. Gerdau’s payout ratio is presently 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.