Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Short Interest Up 366.7% in June

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 7,420,000 shares, an increase of 366.7% from the May 31st total of 1,590,000 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 9,280,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.8 days.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GGB shares. Bank of America upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $4.50 to $5.00 in a research report on Friday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $4.17 to $5.00 in a report on Monday, April 15th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Gerdau by 0.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 92,086,997 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $407,025,000 after acquiring an additional 378,125 shares in the last quarter. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. boosted its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. now owns 18,240,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $88,465,000 after buying an additional 547,234 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 92.5% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 4,520,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,563,000 after buying an additional 2,172,396 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 95.2% in the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 1,972,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,565,000 after buying an additional 961,612 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 7.5% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,867,323 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,907,000 after buying an additional 130,123 shares in the last quarter. 1.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Gerdau Price Performance

Shares of GGB remained flat at $3.30 during midday trading on Friday. 7,747,147 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,491,622. The company’s 50-day moving average is $3.40 and its 200 day moving average is $3.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.44 and a beta of 1.77. Gerdau has a 1-year low of $3.06 and a 1-year high of $5.13.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The basic materials company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $3.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 11.04%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Gerdau will post 0.58 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, May 20th were issued a dividend of $0.055 per share. This represents a $0.22 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.67%. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 17th. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.16%.

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.