Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) Raises Dividend to $0.02 Per Share

Key Points

• Gerdau S.A. declared a quarterly dividend of $0.02 per share, representing a 23.1% increase from the previous dividend, with a yield of 3.0%.
• The company reported $0.08 EPS for the last quarter, missing estimates, and generated a revenue of $3.13 billion, falling short of expectations.
• Equities analysts anticipate Gerdau will earn $0.47 per share in the coming year, suggesting the company can sustain its dividend payments.

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB - Get Free Report) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, August 4th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, August 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.0216 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, August 25th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, August 13th. This is a 23.1% increase from Gerdau's previous quarterly dividend of $0.02.

Gerdau has a payout ratio of 21.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Gerdau to earn $0.47 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 17.0%.

Gerdau Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GGB traded up $0.07 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $2.93. The company had a trading volume of 12,912,314 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,886,484. Gerdau has a twelve month low of $2.27 and a twelve month high of $3.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 1.50. The stock has a market cap of $6.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.23 and a beta of 1.36. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $2.95 and its 200-day simple moving average is $2.85.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.09 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $3.13 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. Gerdau had a net margin of 4.81% and a return on equity of 6.51%. On average, research analysts predict that Gerdau will post 0.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

GGB has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America restated a "neutral" rating on shares of Gerdau in a research report on Monday, April 7th. UBS Group upgraded Gerdau from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price target for the stock from $2.90 to $3.80 in a research report on Monday, June 9th.

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.

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