Vale (NYSE:VALE) Shares Gap Up Following Analyst Upgrade

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Wednesday after Barclays raised their price target on the stock from $16.00 to $17.00. The stock had previously closed at $11.67, but opened at $12.06. Barclays currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Vale shares last traded at $11.89, with a volume of 27,429,076 shares trading hands.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $19.00 price target on shares of Vale in a research report on Monday, February 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of Vale from $20.50 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 12th. Bank of America reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $13.00 target price (down previously from $20.00) on shares of Vale in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Vale in a research report on Saturday, March 30th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft cut their target price on shares of Vale from $18.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.67.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. BlackRock Inc. grew its stake in Vale by 18.7% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 72,165,728 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,138,775,000 after buying an additional 11,393,498 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE grew its stake in Vale by 57.8% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 22,763,893 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $359,214,000 after buying an additional 8,334,786 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in Vale by 2,830.0% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 22,286,695 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $353,469,000 after purchasing an additional 21,526,055 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in Vale by 21.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,752,878 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $237,889,000 after purchasing an additional 3,092,376 shares during the period. Finally, State Street Corp boosted its holdings in Vale by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,799,196 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $217,752,000 after purchasing an additional 452,290 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Trading Down 0.1 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.28, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $12.67 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $53.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.29 and a beta of 0.97.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.04 by ($0.48). Vale had a net margin of 19.10% and a return on equity of 20.00%. The company had revenue of $13.05 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $12.95 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 2.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 26th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.3182 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 9.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. Vale’s payout ratio is 64.48%.

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.