Vale (NYSE:VALE) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $16.00 to $17.00. The stock had previously closed at $11.67, but opened at $12.06. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Vale shares last traded at $11.89, with a volume of 27,429,076 shares changing hands.

VALE has been the subject of several other research reports. Bank of America reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $13.00 price objective (down previously from $20.00) on shares of Vale in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Vale from $20.50 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 12th. 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 report on Thursday, April 4th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $19.00 price target on shares of Vale in a report on Monday, February 12th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on Vale in a report on Saturday, March 30th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Vale by 18.7% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 72,165,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,138,775,000 after acquiring an additional 11,393,498 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its position in Vale by 57.8% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,763,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $359,214,000 after acquiring an additional 8,334,786 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its position in Vale by 2,830.0% in the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,286,695 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,469,000 after acquiring an additional 21,526,055 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in Vale by 21.1% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,752,878 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $237,889,000 after acquiring an additional 3,092,376 shares during the last quarter. Finally, State Street Corp grew its position in Vale by 3.4% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,799,196 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $217,752,000 after acquiring an additional 452,290 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $12.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $13.78. The stock has a market cap of $53.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.47, a PEG ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.97.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.56 EPS 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.95 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.82 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Cuts Dividend

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

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.