Bank of America Corp DE Sells 6,244,487 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Bank of America Corp DE decreased its holdings in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 33.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 12,575,087 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 6,244,487 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned about 0.28% of Vale worth $111,541,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in Vale by 328.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,349,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $153,891,000 after acquiring an additional 13,298,912 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Vale by 28.8% during the 4th 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 in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Vale by 20.5% during the fourth quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 33,995,398 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $301,541,000 after acquiring an additional 5,775,590 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in shares of Vale by 106.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 5,001,228 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fourth Sail Capital LP purchased a new stake in Vale during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,305,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VALE has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Vale from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $11.50 in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Vale in a research report on Wednesday. They set a “hold” rating for the company. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Vale from $10.50 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $11.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Vale in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $12.13.

Vale Stock Performance

VALE opened at $9.37 on Friday. The company has a market cap 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 firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.49 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.53. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Vale S.A. has a 52-week low of $8.06 and a 52-week high of $13.14.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.3758 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This represents a yield of 7.5%. This is a positive change from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.