Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Boosts Stake in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. lifted its position in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE – Get Rating) by 30.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 16,735 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,875 shares during the quarter. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Vale were worth $284,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VALE. National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of Vale by 7,636.2% during the 4th quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 34,263,547 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $581,453,000 after purchasing an additional 33,820,650 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in Vale by 26.5% in the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,591,466 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $167,717,000 after acquiring an additional 2,640,327 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Vale by 1.6% in the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 12,551,617 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $183,630,000 after acquiring an additional 198,699 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its holdings in Vale by 194.2% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 9,394,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $125,136,000 after acquiring an additional 6,201,399 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD raised its holdings in Vale by 9.0% in the 4th quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 8,928,948 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $151,524,000 after acquiring an additional 739,805 shares during the last quarter. 20.58% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada downgraded shares of Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $16.00 to $15.00 in a report on Monday, February 6th. Citigroup cut shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $20.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday, April 17th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Thursday, May 4th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of Vale from $19.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Friday, April 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $20.00 to $17.50 in a research note on Thursday, February 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.50.

Vale Stock Performance

NYSE:VALE opened at $14.08 on Tuesday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.08 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.01. The company has a market cap of $63.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.99 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Vale S.A. has a 52 week low of $11.72 and a 52 week high of $19.31.

Vale (NYSE:VALE – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The basic materials company reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.63 by $0.19. The business had revenue of $11.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.51 billion. Vale had a net margin of 38.99% and a return on equity of 38.16%. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Vale S.A. will post 2.67 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th were paid a $0.3542 dividend. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.05. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a dividend yield of 6.1%. Vale’s payout ratio is 19.55%.

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.