Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) saw a significant increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,400,000 shares, an increase of 12.5% from the August 31st total of 5,690,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 6,400,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.0 days. Approximately 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gerdau

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of GGB. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its position in Gerdau by 66.2% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 17,344 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $84,000 after buying an additional 6,909 shares during the period. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC increased its stake in shares of Gerdau by 912.2% during the fourth quarter. Campbell & CO Investment Adviser LLC now owns 232,857 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,129,000 after buying an additional 209,853 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in Gerdau by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 91,708,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $444,788,000 after purchasing an additional 6,268,313 shares during the period. Capital International Sarl lifted its position in shares of Gerdau by 12.0% in the 4th quarter. Capital International Sarl now owns 1,223,818 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,936,000 after purchasing an additional 130,750 shares during the period. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd boosted its position in Gerdau by 91.0% during the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 119,920 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $581,000 after acquiring an additional 57,122 shares in the last quarter. 1.49% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gerdau Trading Down 0.3 %

GGB traded down $0.01 on Tuesday, hitting $3.49. The company had a trading volume of 3,705,180 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,782,518. Gerdau has a 12-month low of $2.92 and a 12-month high of $4.21. The company has a quick ratio of 1.36, a current ratio of 2.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $3.26 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.38. The company has a market cap of $7.36 billion, a PE ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 1.74.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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%. Equities research analysts expect that Gerdau will post 0.53 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.055 per share. This is a boost from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 13th. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.30%. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is currently 13.11%.

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.