Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. Takes $356,000 Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Letko Brosseau & Associates Inc. bought a new position in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm bought 31,875 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $356,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda grew its stake in Vale by 1,422.7% during the fourth quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 8,586,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $136,175,000 after buying an additional 8,022,188 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC grew its position in Vale by 3,952.2% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 3,343,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $40,758,000 after acquiring an additional 3,261,060 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Vale by 110.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,459,485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $60,983,000 after purchasing an additional 2,871,094 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Vale by 22.0% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 12,315,171 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $195,319,000 after purchasing an additional 2,224,756 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI boosted its stake in Vale by 1,079.6% in the second quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,575,642 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $17,645,000 after purchasing an additional 1,442,063 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on VALE shares. BNP Paribas upgraded Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Wolfe Research cut shares of Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, July 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of Vale from $18.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, June 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.72.

Vale Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of VALE traded down $0.11 on Friday, reaching $10.13. 29,338,189 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 26,512,863. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $10.73 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.73. Vale S.A. has a 12 month low of $9.66 and a 12 month high of $16.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $45.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.08, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $9.92 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.97 billion. Vale had a net margin of 23.07% and a return on equity of 22.23%. Research analysts anticipate that Vale S.A. will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th will be paid a $0.3698 dividend. This is a positive change from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 5th. This represents a yield of 12.1%. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.09%.

Vale 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.