Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Buys 7,244 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. grew its stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 43.3% during the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 23,979 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,244 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in Vale were worth $378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VALE. Money Concepts Capital Corp bought a new stake in Vale during the fourth quarter worth about $53,000. CWM LLC boosted its stake in Vale by 22.7% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 5,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 938 shares in the last quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Vale by 51.3% during the fourth quarter. Penserra Capital Management LLC now owns 4,763 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $80,000 after acquiring an additional 1,615 shares in the last quarter. Spire Wealth Management boosted its stake in Vale by 289.0% during the first quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 5,473 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $86,000 after acquiring an additional 4,066 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GPS Wealth Strategies Group LLC bought a new stake in Vale during the first quarter worth about $87,000. Institutional investors own 16.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on VALE shares. Scotiabank lowered shares of Vale from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $16.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their target price on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Friday, July 28th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Vale from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $13.20 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, June 28th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Vale from $18.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Wednesday, June 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from a “peer perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $17.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, July 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.97.

Vale Stock Up 3.2 %

VALE opened at $13.33 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.76, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $13.61 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.51. Vale S.A. has a twelve month low of $11.72 and a twelve month high of $19.31. The stock has a market capitalization of $59.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.53 and a beta of 0.86.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 27th. The basic materials company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by ($0.33). Vale had a net margin of 27.29% and a return on equity of 28.86%. The business had revenue of $9.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.82 billion. Equities research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, August 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.4056 per share. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.35. This represents a yield of 5.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 14th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is currently 28.63%.

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.