D Orazio & Associates Inc. Invests $151,000 in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

D Orazio & Associates Inc. bought a new stake in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 13,475 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $151,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VALE. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Vale by 85.1% during the fourth quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 491,207 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $7,791,000 after purchasing an additional 225,806 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Vale by 109.1% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 101,406 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,236,000 after buying an additional 52,906 shares in the last quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Oaktree Capital Management LP now owns 9,399,887 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $149,082,000 after buying an additional 705,520 shares during the period. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new position in Vale during the first quarter valued at about $1,379,000. Finally, M&T Bank Corp acquired a new position in Vale during the fourth quarter worth about $190,000. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on VALE shares. Morgan Stanley cut 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. BNP Paribas raised shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. UBS Group decreased their price target 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, Wolfe Research downgraded Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.72.

Vale Stock Up 1.4 %

NYSE:VALE opened at $10.37 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $10.63 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.64. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.47 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.73, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.93. 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 S.A. has a 1-year low of $9.66 and a 1-year high of $16.08.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

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