Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. Buys 508,100 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 10.4% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 5,398,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 508,100 shares during the period. Vale makes up approximately 2.5% of Itau Unibanco Holding S.A.’s holdings, making the stock its 13th biggest position. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. owned 0.12% of Vale worth $58,690,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VALE. Profund Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Vale by 3.9% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 144,183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,611,000 after buying an additional 5,457 shares during the last quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Vale in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $425,000. Oaktree Fund Advisors LLC lifted its position in Vale by 11.4% in the 2nd quarter. Oaktree Fund Advisors LLC now owns 1,137,196 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,702,000 after acquiring an additional 116,556 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its stake in Vale by 12.5% during the 2nd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 551,760 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,163,000 after purchasing an additional 61,370 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. boosted its stake in Vale by 6.5% during the 2nd quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,497,507 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $16,727,000 after purchasing an additional 91,388 shares during the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VALE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Wolfe Research downgraded Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 5th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vale has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.72.

Vale Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE VALE opened at $10.40 on Friday. Vale S.A. has a 12-month low of $9.66 and a 12-month high of $16.08. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $10.52 and a 200 day moving average of $11.51.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. Vale had a net margin of 23.07% and a return on equity of 22.23%. The firm had revenue of $9.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.97 billion. On average, research analysts anticipate that Vale S.A. will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th were paid a $0.3698 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. This represents a dividend yield of 12.1%. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 64.09%.

About Vale

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.