Asset Management One Co. Ltd. Decreases Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Asset Management One Co. Ltd. reduced its stake in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 76.1% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 191,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 611,794 shares during the period. Asset Management One Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Vale were worth $3,045,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD increased its stake in shares of Vale by 1.7% in the third quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 9,254,277 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $124,007,000 after acquiring an additional 150,918 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 10.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 10,097 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $160,000 after purchasing an additional 932 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Vale by 4.5% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 6,724,828 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $90,112,000 after buying an additional 289,495 shares in the last quarter. Seven Eight Capital LP purchased a new position in Vale in the third quarter valued at $290,000. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Vale by 4.0% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,606,201 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $48,323,000 after purchasing an additional 139,557 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Stock Down 1.2 %

Vale stock opened at $12.03 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $12.79 and a 200 day moving average price of $13.81. Vale S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $11.73 and a fifty-two week high of $16.40. The company has a market capitalization of $53.91 billion, a PE ratio of 6.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.97.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.48). Vale had a net margin of 19.10% and a return on equity of 20.00%. The firm had revenue of $13.05 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.82 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that Vale S.A. will post 2.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.3182 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a yield of 9.7%. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 64.48%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VALE has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their price objective on Vale from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Vale from $20.50 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Vale in a research note on Monday, February 12th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective (down from $20.00) on shares of Vale in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com initiated coverage on Vale in a report on Saturday, March 30th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.52.

Vale 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.