Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Shares Acquired by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 1.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 701,196 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,489 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Vale were worth $7,783,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Vale by 18.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $427,550,000 after purchasing an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda boosted its position in Vale by 60.6% in the 2nd quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $245,404,000 after buying an additional 8,288,112 shares during the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its stake in shares of Vale by 3,692.5% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $212,576,000 after acquiring an additional 17,720,100 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Vale by 10.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,404,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $203,290,000 after acquiring an additional 1,682,544 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 123.4% in the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 12,059,814 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $140,859,000 after acquiring an additional 6,660,933 shares in the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on VALE. Morgan Stanley lowered Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group lowered shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $14.00 to $11.50 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research lowered Vale from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.38.

Vale Stock Performance

Shares of VALE stock opened at $8.90 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $39.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.12, a PEG ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.91. The business has a 50 day moving average of $10.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.62. Vale S.A. has a 52 week low of $8.69 and a 52 week high of $16.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.15. The business had revenue of $9.55 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.61 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 21.07% and a net margin of 22.59%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that Vale S.A. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

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.