Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE – Get Rating) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve brokerages that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $17.85.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VALE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Vale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $19.00 to $20.00 in a report on Wednesday, November 23rd. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Vale from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $14.50 to $20.00 in a report on Friday, December 9th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Vale in a report on Thursday. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $20.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered Vale from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $17.50 in a research note on Thursday, February 9th.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VALE opened at $15.59 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 1.12. The firm has a market cap of $71.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.85 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.51. Vale has a fifty-two week low of $11.72 and a fifty-two week high of $21.29.

Vale (NYSE:VALE – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 16th. The basic materials company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.19. Vale had a net margin of 42.86% and a return on equity of 43.41%. The business had revenue of $11.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.51 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vale will post 2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 29th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.3542 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a yield of 6.1%. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.05. Vale’s payout ratio is presently 2.47%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its holdings in Vale by 6.9% during the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 35,578,820 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $603,773,000 after purchasing an additional 2,305,324 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI increased its stake in shares of Vale by 7,636.2% during the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 34,263,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $581,453,000 after buying an additional 33,820,650 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 93.2% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 31,188,702 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $529,272,000 after acquiring an additional 15,047,063 shares in the last quarter. Dynamo Internacional Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. lifted its stake in Vale by 89.6% in the second quarter. Dynamo Internacional Gestao DE Recursos LTDA. now owns 20,677,522 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $302,512,000 after acquiring an additional 9,768,971 shares during the period. Finally, GQG Partners LLC grew its holdings in Vale by 21.9% during the 2nd quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 19,092,136 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $279,473,000 after acquiring an additional 3,433,415 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 20.58% of the company’s stock.

Vale Company Profile

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Vale SA engages in the production and exportation of iron ore, pellets, manganese, and iron alloys. It operates through the following segments: Ferrous Minerals, Base Metals, and Coal. The Ferrous Minerals segment includes the production and extraction of iron ore, iron ore pellets, manganese, other ferrous products, and logistic services.