Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Acquires 363,783 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 10.0% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,005,525 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 363,783 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.09% of Vale worth $44,741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. grew its position in Vale by 6.9% during the 2nd quarter. Legacy Capital Group California Inc. now owns 17,932 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,154 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 62,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 1,187 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 19,277 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $235,000 after purchasing an additional 1,226 shares during the period. IFG Advisory LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 6.1% in the 2nd quarter. IFG Advisory LLC now owns 22,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $254,000 after purchasing an additional 1,296 shares during the period. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 48,109 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $586,000 after purchasing an additional 1,396 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VALE has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Wolfe Research cut shares of Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, July 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas raised shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vale presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.17.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of NYSE VALE opened at $11.79 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $52.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.51, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.93. Vale S.A. has a one year low of $9.66 and a one year high of $16.08. The company’s fifty day moving average is $10.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.44. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 1.08.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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. Analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 2.14 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

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