Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) Raised to “Overweight” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note published on Monday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $6.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $5.00.

Gerdau Stock Up 0.8 %

GGB stock opened at $4.31 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 2.59, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. Gerdau has a 1 year low of $4.11 and a 1 year high of $6.16. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.33 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.47. The firm has a market cap of $7.56 billion, a PE ratio of 5.13 and a beta of 1.73.

Gerdau’s stock is scheduled to split on Tuesday, April 30th. The 6-5 split was announced on Tuesday, April 30th. The newly minted shares will be distributed to shareholders after the market closes on Tuesday, April 30th.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter. Gerdau had a net margin of 10.80% and a return on equity of 15.05%. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Gerdau will post 0.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 5th were issued a $0.0202 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.88%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.52%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of GGB. FMR LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 21,550,300 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 10,402,297 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised 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 acquiring an additional 6,268,313 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised 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 acquiring an additional 4,399,890 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 156.8% during 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 period. Institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

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.