Northern Trust Corp Acquires 877,404 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 27.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 4,018,372 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 877,404 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp owned approximately 0.09% of Vale worth $35,643,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Boothbay Fund Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Boothbay Fund Management LLC now owns 1,003,999 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,905,000 after buying an additional 3,999 shares during the period. Susquehanna Financial Group Lllp acquired a new stake in shares of Vale during the 4th quarter worth $1,627,000. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC increased its position in shares of Vale by 17.6% in the fourth quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC now owns 17,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $151,000 after purchasing an additional 2,541 shares during the period. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. raised its stake in Vale by 113.1% in the fourth quarter. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. now owns 467,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,162,000 after purchasing an additional 248,391 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Adage Capital Partners GP L.L.C. bought a new stake in Vale during the fourth quarter worth about $3,992,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $11.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Vale in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. UBS Group cut their target price on Vale from $10.50 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Bank of America upgraded Vale from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $11.00 to $11.50 in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on Vale in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Vale presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $12.13.

Vale Stock Performance

Shares of VALE stock opened at $9.37 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $42.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.51, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.83. 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 business’s 50-day moving average price is $9.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $9.53. Vale S.A. has a 12 month low of $8.06 and a 12 month high of $13.14.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.02). The business had revenue of $8.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 17.38% and a net margin of 16.15%. Equities research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.3758 per share. This is a positive change from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. This represents a yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 54.35%.

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.