Vale (NYSE:VALE) Sets New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $13.80 to $14.50. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Vale traded as high as $12.48 and last traded at $12.4310, with a volume of 3445495 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $12.30.

VALE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on Vale from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the company a “cautious” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Scotiabank upgraded Vale from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $14.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Vale to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Vale from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. Finally, Zacks Research raised Vale from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vale currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $12.61.

Institutional Trading of Vale

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vale in the 1st quarter worth $371,778,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Vale by 1,534.8% during the 2nd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 24,810,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $240,908,000 after purchasing an additional 23,292,629 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its holdings in Vale by 165.9% in the 1st quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 31,257,989 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $311,955,000 after purchasing an additional 19,500,437 shares in the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD purchased a new stake in Vale in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $123,532,000. Finally, RWC Asset Advisors US LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Vale in the third quarter valued at $65,013,000. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Vale Stock Performance

The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $11.18 and its 200 day moving average price is $10.25. The company has a market cap of $56.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.05 and a beta of 0.82.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. Vale had a return on equity of 18.14% and a net margin of 14.23%.The firm had revenue of $10.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.39 billion. On average, analysts expect that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Vale

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.