Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA Acquires New Shares in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund bought 10,706 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $95,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VALE. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Vale by 18.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $427,550,000 after acquiring an additional 5,635,167 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its stake in Vale by 3,692.5% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,576,000 after purchasing an additional 17,720,100 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Vale by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,404,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,290,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,544 shares during the period. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of Vale by 123.4% during the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 12,059,814 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $140,859,000 after purchasing an additional 6,660,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 0.4% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,906,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $139,073,000 after purchasing an additional 53,061 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VALE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. UBS Group lowered Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $11.50 in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Wolfe Research raised Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Vale in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.26.

Vale Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of VALE opened at $9.91 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. Vale S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $8.38 and a fifty-two week high of $13.68. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $9.14 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.98. The firm has a market cap of $44.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.88, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.91.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.20 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.36). The business had revenue of $10.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.03 billion. Vale had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 17.38%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.3758 dividend. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. This represents a yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Vale’s payout ratio is 88.89%.

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.