Vale (NYSE:VALE) Shares Up 0.5%

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)’s share price rose 0.5% during trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $11.14 and last traded at $11.12. Approximately 7,501,750 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 72% from the average daily volume of 26,420,395 shares. The stock had previously closed at $11.07.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VALE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered their target price on Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 5th. BNP Paribas raised Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, June 21st. Wolfe Research lowered Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on Vale from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.17.

Vale Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.08. The firm has a market cap of $49.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.93. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $10.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.45.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. Vale had a return on equity of 22.23% and a net margin of 23.07%. The business had revenue of $9.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.97 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 2.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.3698 per share. This is a positive change from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. This represents a yield of 12.1%. Vale’s payout ratio is 64.09%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda increased its position in Vale by 60.6% during the second quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $245,404,000 after buying an additional 8,288,112 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Vale by 22.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,315,171 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $195,319,000 after buying an additional 2,224,756 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in Vale by 4.1% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,269,261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $149,561,000 after buying an additional 485,702 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in Vale by 27.8% during the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,853,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $132,408,000 after buying an additional 2,578,900 shares during the period. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD increased its position in Vale by 20.4% during the second quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 10,950,729 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $118,815,000 after buying an additional 1,854,940 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Company Profile

Vale SA, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells iron ore and iron ore pellets for use as raw materials in steelmaking in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through Iron Solutions and Energy Transition Materials segments. The Iron Solutions segment produces and extracts iron ore and pellets, manganese, and other ferrous products; and provides related logistic services.