5,972,460 Shares in Gerdau S.A. $GGB Purchased by Donald Smith & CO. Inc.

Donald Smith & CO. Inc. acquired a new stake in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund acquired 5,972,460 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $17,440,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GGB. Strs Ohio acquired a new stake in shares of Gerdau in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $737,000. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Gerdau in the first quarter valued at $30,134,000. Jump Financial LLC lifted its holdings in Gerdau by 48.2% in the first quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 391,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,113,000 after acquiring an additional 127,319 shares during the period. LGT Group Foundation purchased a new stake in shares of Gerdau during the 1st quarter worth $354,000. Finally, Kawa Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Gerdau during the 1st quarter worth $6,011,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently commented on GGB shares. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Gerdau in a research note on Monday, December 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Gerdau presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.80.

Gerdau Trading Down 6.1%

Shares of Gerdau stock opened at $3.48 on Friday. Gerdau S.A. has a 1 year low of $2.27 and a 1 year high of $3.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.70 and a quick ratio of 1.47. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $3.42 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.14. The company has a market capitalization of $6.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.87, a P/E/G ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.49.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.11 by ($0.01). Gerdau had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 5.92%. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.81 billion. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be paid a $0.0521 dividend. This represents a $0.21 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, November 12th. This is a positive change from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. Gerdau’s dividend payout ratio is presently 74.07%.

Gerdau 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.