Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.06 Per Share

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) announced a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 12th will be given a dividend of $0.0637 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, December 22nd. This represents a $0.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.6%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 12th. This is a 42.1% increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0448.

Gerdau has increased its dividend payment by an average of 0.2% per year over the last three years. Gerdau has a dividend payout ratio of 55.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Gerdau to earn $0.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.21 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.9%.

Gerdau Trading Up 4.7%

Shares of GGB stock opened at $4.58 on Tuesday. Gerdau has a 52-week low of $3.14 and a 52-week high of $5.48. The stock has a market cap of $9.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38 and a beta of 1.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $4.91 and a 200-day moving average of $4.48.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last issued its earnings results on Monday, October 26th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.03). Gerdau had a net margin of 4.06% and a return on equity of 8.90%. The business had revenue of $3.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Gerdau will post 0.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GGB. HSBC cut shares of Gerdau from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. Bank of America downgraded Gerdau from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $5.10 price objective on the stock. in a report on Thursday, August 20th. Weiss Ratings raised Gerdau from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, October 12th. Itau BBA Securities raised Gerdau from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded Gerdau from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 31st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $5.65.

Gerdau Company Profile

Gerdau is a Brazilian steel producer with roots dating to 1901, when João Gerdau established a nail factory in Porto Alegre. The company has since grown into a major producer of long steel products and a supplier of special steel.

Its products serve construction, manufacturing, automotive, agricultural and other industrial markets. Gerdau makes items such as reinforcing steel, wire rod, structural shapes and specialty steel, and also has iron ore mining operations in Brazil. Its steelmaking relies substantially on recycling scrap metal.

Gerdau serves customers across the Americas, with operations in Brazil, the United States, Canada and several Latin American countries.