Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Declares Dividend Increase – $0.06 Per Share

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, August 1st, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 13th will be given a dividend of 0.055 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, August 27th. This represents a $0.22 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.21%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, August 13th. This is an increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.06.

Gerdau has increased its dividend by an average of 58.3% annually over the last three years. Gerdau has a payout ratio of 46.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Gerdau to earn $0.54 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.22 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 40.7%.

Gerdau Price Performance

Gerdau stock opened at $3.05 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.29 and a current ratio of 2.83. Gerdau has a 1 year low of $3.04 and a 1 year high of $4.95. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $3.28 and a 200 day moving average price of $3.47. The company has a market cap of $6.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.02 and a beta of 1.76.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The basic materials company reported $0.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.03. Gerdau had a net margin of 7.88% and a return on equity of 8.43%. The company had revenue of $3.27 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. Sell-side analysts predict that Gerdau will post 0.49 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on GGB shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $4.17 to $5.00 in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Bank of America raised shares of Gerdau from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $4.50 to $5.00 in a research report on Friday, May 24th.

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.