Vale (NYSE:VALE) Upgraded by Zacks Research to Strong-Buy Rating

Vale (NYSE:VALE) was upgraded by stock analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Scotiabank raised Vale from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $14.00 price target for the company in a report on Thursday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $15.00 price objective on shares of Vale and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. HSBC boosted their target price on shares of Vale from $12.25 to $13.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Vale from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Vale from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $12.61.

Vale Stock Performance

NYSE:VALE opened at $12.36 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.05 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Vale has a 1 year low of $8.06 and a 1 year high of $12.48. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.18 and a 200-day moving average of $10.25.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. Vale had a return on equity of 18.14% and a net margin of 14.23%.The firm had revenue of $10.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.39 billion. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vale will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vale

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of VALE. Banque Transatlantique SA acquired a new position in Vale in the first quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in shares of Vale by 60.0% during the 3rd quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,030 shares during the last quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co bought a new stake in shares of Vale during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 98.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 2,021 shares during the period. Finally, Thompson Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Vale in the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

About Vale

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.