American Century Companies Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB)

American Century Companies Inc. raised its stake in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 27.9% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 2,752,405 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 599,700 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.13% of Gerdau worth $9,083,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital International Investors boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 0.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 92,086,997 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $407,025,000 after acquiring an additional 378,125 shares in the last quarter. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 3.1% in 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 in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted 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 worth $44,181,000 after acquiring an additional 4,351,666 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 15.7% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,324,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,369,000 after acquiring an additional 179,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Sarl boosted its holdings in Gerdau by 2.8% in the first quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 1,258,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,562,000 after acquiring an additional 34,487 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Price Performance

Shares of NYSE GGB opened at $3.26 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 company has a market cap of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of 5.34 and a beta of 1.74. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.39. Gerdau S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $2.92 and a fifty-two week high of $4.21.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its 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 firm had revenue of $3.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. As a group, equities analysts expect that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th were issued a dividend of $0.055 per share. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.75%. Gerdau’s payout ratio is 13.11%.

About Gerdau

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.