Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Short Interest Up 12.5% in September

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,400,000 shares, a growth of 12.5% from the August 31st total of 5,690,000 shares. Currently, 0.5% of the shares of the stock are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 6,400,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.0 days.

Institutional Trading of Gerdau

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. QRG Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Gerdau by 5.5% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 70,404 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $232,000 after buying an additional 3,640 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Gerdau by 16.0% in the first quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 33,987 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $150,000 after acquiring an additional 4,678 shares in the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its position in shares of Gerdau by 20.0% during the second quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 32,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $108,000 after purchasing an additional 5,460 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its stake in Gerdau by 27.6% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 30,308 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $100,000 after purchasing an additional 6,558 shares during the period. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Gerdau by 66.2% during 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 in the last quarter. 1.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Gerdau Price Performance

Shares of GGB stock traded down $0.01 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $3.49. 3,705,180 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, 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 market capitalization of $7.36 billion, a PE ratio of 5.77 and a beta of 1.74. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $3.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $3.38. The company has a current ratio of 2.83, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.07 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $3.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.01 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 8.43%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Gerdau will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, August 27th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 13th were issued a dividend of $0.055 per share. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 13.11%.

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.