Abbington Investment Group Buys New Stake in Vale S.A. $VALE

Abbington Investment Group purchased a new position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 147,699 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,604,000. Vale comprises approximately 1.4% of Abbington Investment Group’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 27th biggest position.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Vale by 1,534.8% in 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 in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Vale by 31.8% in the second quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 21,705,260 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $210,758,000 after buying an additional 5,234,201 shares during the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Vale by 5.3% in the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,080,222 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $194,978,000 after acquiring an additional 1,002,588 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its holdings in Vale by 2.3% in the second quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 16,296,306 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $158,237,000 after acquiring an additional 363,901 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of Vale by 24.8% during the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 12,050,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $117,012,000 after acquiring an additional 2,393,157 shares during the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on VALE. Zacks Research cut shares of Vale from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vale from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of Vale to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Vale from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $15.00 in a report on Thursday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on Vale from $13.50 to $14.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.21.

Vale Stock Down 1.2%

VALE stock opened at $14.09 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $63.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.83 and a beta of 0.53. Vale S.A. has a 12 month low of $8.06 and a 12 month high of $14.38. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its 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 net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 18.60%. The company had revenue of $10.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.39 billion. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a special dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be paid a $0.2331 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is presently 69.23%.

About Vale

Vale SA is a Brazilian multinational mining company and one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore and iron ore pellets. In addition to iron ore, the company produces and sells a range of bulk commodities and metals, including nickel, copper, coal, manganese, ferroalloys and cobalt, and it participates in the fertilizer inputs market. Vale also operates extensive logistics assets — including rail, port and maritime logistics — that support its mining and export activities and provide services to third parties in some regions.

Headquartered in Brazil, Vale maintains a global operational footprint with mining, processing and shipping activities across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.