Gerdau S.A. to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.02 (NYSE:GGB)

Gerdau S.A. (NYSE:GGB) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th will be given a dividend of 0.0175 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.07 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 7th.

Gerdau has decreased its dividend payment by an average of 20.6% annually over the last three years. Gerdau has a dividend payout ratio of 46.5% meaning 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 $0.20 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 42.6%.

Gerdau Price Performance

Gerdau stock traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $2.83. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 11,123,261 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,013,220. Gerdau has a 52 week low of $2.67 and a 52 week high of $4.04. The company has a current ratio of 2.98, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $2.96 and a 200-day moving average price of $3.19. The stock has a market cap of $5.87 billion, a PE ratio of 6.57 and a beta of 1.73.

Gerdau (NYSE:GGB) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.06. Gerdau had a return on equity of 7.74% and a net margin of 7.03%. The firm had revenue of $2.88 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.66 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Gerdau will post 0.46 EPS for the current year.

Gerdau Company 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.