Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) Shares Gap Up to $4.27

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) shares gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $4.27, but opened at $4.40. Gerdau shares last traded at $4.31, with a volume of 5,815,323 shares.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Separately, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $5.00 to $6.00 in a research note on Monday.

Gerdau Price Performance

The stock has a market capitalization of $6.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.32 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.47.

Gerdau’s stock is set to split on the morning of Tuesday, April 30th. The 6-5 split was announced on Tuesday, April 30th. The newly issued shares will be distributed to shareholders after the closing bell on Tuesday, April 30th.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter. Gerdau had a return on equity of 15.05% and a net margin of 10.80%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were issued a dividend of $0.0202 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is 9.52%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gerdau

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 233,911.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,559,513 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $102,839,000 after purchasing an additional 21,550,300 shares during the last quarter. Millennium Management LLC lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 1,180.1% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 11,283,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $62,512,000 after purchasing an additional 10,402,297 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted 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 worth $444,788,000 after purchasing an additional 6,268,313 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 636.6% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 5,091,061 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,099,000 after purchasing an additional 4,399,890 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 156.8% in the 1st quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 6,153,231 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,335,000 after purchasing an additional 3,756,829 shares during the last quarter. 1.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Gerdau

Gerdau SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer company. It operates through Brazil Business, North America Business, South America Business, and Special Steel Business divisions. The company 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.