Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Shares Purchased by Virtus Family Office LLC

Virtus Family Office LLC increased its position in shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 2.4% in the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 303,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 7,247 shares during the quarter. Virtus Family Office LLC’s holdings in Gerdau were worth $863,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of GGB. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Gerdau during the fourth quarter worth $65,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Gerdau by 81.9% during the fourth quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 277,784 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $800,000 after purchasing an additional 125,099 shares in the last quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN grew its stake in shares of Gerdau by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 53,736 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $155,000 after purchasing an additional 4,657 shares in the last quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd grew its stake in shares of Gerdau by 51.1% during the fourth quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 34,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $98,000 after purchasing an additional 11,522 shares in the last quarter. Finally, FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Gerdau by 10.4% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 98,194,996 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $282,802,000 after purchasing an additional 9,215,971 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Stock Performance

NYSE GGB opened at $3.00 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 1.50. Gerdau S.A. has a 1 year low of $2.27 and a 1 year high of $3.62. The company has a market capitalization of $6.24 billion, a PE ratio of 10.35, a P/E/G ratio of 1.29 and a beta of 1.36. The company has a fifty day moving average of $2.97 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.85.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.01). Gerdau had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 6.51%. The company had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. As a group, analysts expect that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 25th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be paid a $0.0216 dividend. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. This represents a $0.09 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.9%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 13th. Gerdau’s payout ratio is currently 24.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, UBS Group upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $2.90 to $3.80 in a research note on Monday, June 9th.

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.