Amundi Purchases 100,000 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Amundi lifted its position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 7.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,407,451 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 100,000 shares during the period. Amundi’s holdings in Vale were worth $11,963,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its holdings in Vale by 3,692.5% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $212,576,000 after acquiring an additional 17,720,100 shares in the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in Vale in the third quarter valued at $80,300,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 6,660,933 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $427,550,000 after buying an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 106.0% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 9,721,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,226,000 after buying an additional 5,001,228 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently commented on VALE shares. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Barclays dropped their target price 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. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price target on Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.26.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:VALE opened at $9.83 on Friday. Vale S.A. has a fifty-two week low of $8.38 and a fifty-two week high of $13.14. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $9.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $44.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.3758 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. This represents a dividend yield of 7.5%. Vale’s payout ratio is 52.08%.

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.