Zacks Research Downgrades Vale (NYSE:VALE) to Strong Sell

Vale (NYSE:VALE) was downgraded by analysts at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report issued on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on VALE. The Goldman Sachs Group cut shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $16.00 in a research note on Monday. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Vale from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 20th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Vale in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Finally, Bank of America raised Vale from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $18.00 to $19.00 in a report on Thursday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $16.15.

Vale Trading Up 0.3%

Shares of VALE stock opened at $15.03 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.19 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $68.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.43 and a beta of 0.46. Vale has a fifty-two week low of $9.36 and a fifty-two week high of $17.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.79, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.44 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.08). Vale had a return on equity of 21.10% and a net margin of 7.21%.The business had revenue of $9.26 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.53 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Vale will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Vale

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VALE. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 58.2% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 89,322,261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,163,896,000 after buying an additional 32,864,929 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 65,132,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $848,677,000 after acquiring an additional 19,397,396 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 15.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 47,947,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $762,848,000 after acquiring an additional 6,351,703 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Vale by 16.7% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 28,961,848 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $314,526,000 after acquiring an additional 4,151,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Vale by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 23,685,915 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $376,843,000 after acquiring an additional 1,205,280 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Company Profile

Vale SA is a Brazilian multinational mining company and one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore and iron ore pellets. In addition to iron ore, the company produces and sells a range of bulk commodities and metals, including nickel, copper, coal, manganese, ferroalloys and cobalt, and it participates in the fertilizer inputs market. Vale also operates extensive logistics assets — including rail, port and maritime logistics — that support its mining and export activities and provide services to third parties in some regions.

Headquartered in Brazil, Vale maintains a global operational footprint with mining, processing and shipping activities across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.