American Century Companies Inc. Grows Holdings in Gerdau S.A. $GGB

American Century Companies Inc. raised its position in Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 4,016,749 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 366,340 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.19% of Gerdau worth $11,729,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of GGB. Signaturefd LLC grew its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 33.4% in the second quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 15,933 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $47,000 after acquiring an additional 3,988 shares in the last quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its position in Gerdau by 33.7% in the second quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 16,479 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,000 after purchasing an additional 4,155 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in shares of Gerdau by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 71,349 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $208,000 after purchasing an additional 4,227 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of Gerdau by 27.9% during the 2nd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 20,632 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 4,499 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. grew its position in Gerdau by 5.1% during the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 129,765 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $379,000 after buying an additional 6,289 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

Gerdau Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of GGB opened at $3.70 on Friday. Gerdau S.A. has a twelve month low of $2.27 and a twelve month high of $3.72. The company has a quick ratio of 1.47, a current ratio of 2.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. The stock has a market cap of $7.38 billion, a PE ratio of 13.69, a P/E/G ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.49. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $3.41 and its 200-day moving average price is $3.13.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly 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). The firm had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $17.81 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 4.38% and a return on equity of 5.92%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Gerdau S.A. will post 0.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, November 12th will be issued a $0.0521 dividend. This represents a $0.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.6%. 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 payout ratio is currently 74.07%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have commented on GGB. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Gerdau in a research report on Monday. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 18th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Gerdau has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $3.80.

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.