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

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) declared a quarterly dividend on Monday, October 26th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 12th will be paid a dividend of $0.0637 per share by the basic materials company on Tuesday, December 22nd. This represents a $0.25 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 12th. This is a 42.1% increase from Gerdau’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.0448.

Gerdau has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.2% annually over the last three years. Gerdau has a dividend payout ratio of 55.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Gerdau to earn $0.62 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.21 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 33.9%.

Gerdau Trading Up 4.7%

NYSE GGB opened at $4.58 on Tuesday. Gerdau has a one year low of $3.14 and a one year high of $5.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a current ratio of 2.87. The company has a market capitalization of $9.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.79 and a beta of 1.55. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $4.91 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $4.48.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, October 26th. The basic materials company reported $0.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.18 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $3.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.64 billion. Gerdau had a return on equity of 8.90% and a net margin of 4.06%. Equities analysts forecast that Gerdau will post 0.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gerdau Company Profile

Gerdau is a Brazilian steel producer with roots dating to 1901, when João Gerdau established a nail factory in Porto Alegre. The company has since grown into a major producer of long steel products and a supplier of special steel.

Its products serve construction, manufacturing, automotive, agricultural and other industrial markets. Gerdau makes items such as reinforcing steel, wire rod, structural shapes and specialty steel, and also has iron ore mining operations in Brazil. Its steelmaking relies substantially on recycling scrap metal.

Gerdau serves customers across the Americas, with operations in Brazil, the United States, Canada and several Latin American countries.