LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC Has $403,000 Stock Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 115.4% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 45,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,400 shares during the quarter. LaSalle St. Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $403,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in shares of Vale by 328.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,349,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $153,891,000 after purchasing an additional 13,298,912 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Vale by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,163,226 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $418,338,000 after buying an additional 10,557,888 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its position in Vale by 106.0% during the fourth 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 acquiring an additional 5,001,228 shares during the last quarter. Fourth Sail Capital LP acquired a new stake in Vale during the 4th quarter worth about $31,305,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its position in shares of Vale by 25.3% in the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 9,965,672 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $88,396,000 after acquiring an additional 2,014,652 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VALE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Vale from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $11.50 in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Scotiabank cut their price target on Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vale has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.65.

Vale Stock Up 0.5 %

Vale stock opened at $9.27 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $9.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.75. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.73. Vale S.A. has a 1-year low of $8.06 and a 1-year high of $13.14.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

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

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.