Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Stock Has Consensus Price Target of $5.65

Shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) have been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $5.65.

Several research firms recently commented on GGB. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, October 12th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Gerdau from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of Gerdau from $6.00 to $6.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 4th. Wall Street Zen lowered Gerdau from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 31st. Finally, Bank of America lowered Gerdau from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.10 price target on the stock. in a research report on Thursday, August 20th.

Gerdau Stock Performance

Shares of GGB stock opened at $4.59 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.41 and a beta of 1.55. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $4.91 and its 200-day moving average price is $4.48. Gerdau has a 12 month low of $3.14 and a 12 month high of $5.48.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, October 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.03). Gerdau had a net margin of 4.06% and a return on equity of 8.90%. The firm had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Gerdau will post 0.55 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 22nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.0637 per share. This represents a $0.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.5%. This is a positive change from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0448. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 12th. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is 53.57%.

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 sale, the executive vice president directly owned 83,399 shares in the company, valued at $424,500.91. This represents a 38.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Chairman Claudio Johannpeter sold 85,607 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $4.94, for a total value of $422,898.58. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.02% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GGB. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gerdau in the 1st quarter valued at $45,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp bought a new position in Gerdau during the first quarter worth $46,000. Greenspring Advisors LLC bought a new position in Gerdau during the second quarter worth $47,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 57.6% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 13,243 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 4,842 shares during the period. Finally, J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG acquired a new position in Gerdau in the first quarter valued at $52,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Company Profile

Gerdau is a Brazilian steel producer with roots dating to 1901, when João Gerdau established a nail factory in Porto Alegre. The company has since grown into a major producer of long steel products and a supplier of special steel. Its products serve construction, manufacturing, automotive, agricultural and other industrial markets. Gerdau makes items such as reinforcing steel, wire rod, structural shapes and specialty steel, and also has iron ore mining operations in Brazil. Its steelmaking relies substantially on recycling scrap metal.