Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) Rating Increased to Overweight at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research report released on Monday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $6.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $5.00.

Gerdau Stock Down 16.8 %

Shares of NYSE:GGB opened at $3.57 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $6.27 billion, a PE ratio of 4.25 and a beta of 1.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.59 and a quick ratio of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $4.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $4.47. Gerdau has a 1 year low of $3.42 and a 1 year high of $5.13.

Gerdau shares are scheduled to split on Tuesday, April 30th. The 6-5 split was announced on Tuesday, April 30th. The newly created shares will be issued to shareholders after the closing bell on Tuesday, April 30th.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter. Gerdau had a return on equity of 15.05% and a net margin of 10.80%. Analysts forecast that Gerdau will post 0.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Gerdau Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 19th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 5th were paid a dividend of $0.0202 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 4th. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. Gerdau’s payout ratio is 9.52%.

Institutional Trading of Gerdau

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings 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 worth $444,788,000 after purchasing an additional 6,268,313 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 233,911.9% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 21,559,513 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $102,839,000 after acquiring an additional 21,550,300 shares in the last quarter. Contrarian Capital Management L.L.C. raised 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 acquiring an additional 547,234 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 6.5% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,261,445 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $70,323,000 after acquiring an additional 871,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Gerdau by 1,180.1% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 11,283,774 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $62,512,000 after acquiring an additional 10,402,297 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 1.49% of the company’s stock.

About Gerdau

Gerdau SA, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a steel producer company. It operates through Brazil Business, North America Business, South America Business, and Special Steel Business divisions. The company 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.