Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Shares Acquired by Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its position in shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 20.0% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,460 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in Gerdau were worth $108,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,708,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $444,788,000 after purchasing an additional 6,268,313 shares during the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 48.1% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 13,391,548 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $44,181,000 after acquiring an additional 4,351,666 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Gerdau by 27.9% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,752,405 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,083,000 after acquiring an additional 599,700 shares during the period. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. increased its stake in Gerdau by 3.1% during the fourth quarter. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 18,240,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $88,465,000 after acquiring an additional 547,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in Gerdau by 1,706.6% in the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 288,519 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $952,000 after purchasing an additional 272,549 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Bank of America raised Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $4.50 to $5.00 in a research report on Friday, May 24th.

Gerdau Stock Performance

Shares of GGB stock opened at $3.37 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.83. The firm has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.74. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $3.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.40. Gerdau S.A. has a one year low of $2.92 and a one year high of $4.41.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.02. Gerdau had a return on equity of 8.43% and a net margin of 7.88%. The company had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a $0.055 dividend. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.53%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. Gerdau’s payout ratio is currently 13.11%.

Gerdau Profile

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.