Insight 2811 Inc. Purchases Shares of 11,039 Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB)

Insight 2811 Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor acquired 11,039 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital International Investors grew its position in Gerdau by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 92,086,997 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $407,025,000 after purchasing an additional 378,125 shares during the period. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. increased its position in shares of Gerdau by 3.1% during 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 raised its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 48.1% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Gerdau by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,324,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,369,000 after acquiring an additional 179,988 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital International Sarl boosted its stake in Gerdau by 2.8% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 1,258,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,562,000 after purchasing an additional 34,487 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Stock Down 0.6 %

GGB traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $3.26. 5,044,303 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,745,267. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $3.25 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $3.41. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.87 billion, a PE ratio of 5.34 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 2.83. Gerdau S.A. has a 1 year low of $2.92 and a 1 year high of $4.41.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $3.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.01 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 8.43%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.49 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Gerdau Company Profile

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.