Wedbush Securities Inc. Invests $38,000 in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB)

Wedbush Securities Inc. bought a new position in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 11,654 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $38,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in Gerdau by 16.7% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 193,194 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $937,000 after purchasing an additional 27,578 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd boosted its position in Gerdau by 124.4% during the fourth quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 155,137 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $752,000 after purchasing an additional 86,014 shares in the last quarter. BayBridge Capital Group LLC purchased a new position in Gerdau during the fourth quarter worth approximately $330,000. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in Gerdau by 66.2% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 17,344 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $84,000 after purchasing an additional 6,909 shares in the last quarter. Finally, IPG Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Gerdau during the fourth quarter worth approximately $55,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Stock Performance

NYSE GGB opened at $3.37 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $7.11 billion, a PE ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.74. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.40. Gerdau S.A. has a 1-year low of $2.92 and a 1-year high of $4.41. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a current ratio of 2.83 and a quick ratio of 1.36.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.01 billion. Gerdau had a return on equity of 8.43% and a net margin of 7.88%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate 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. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were given a $0.055 dividend. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 13th. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 13.11%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.