Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Shares Acquired by Franklin Resources Inc.

Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 1.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 701,196 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 8,489 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in Vale were worth $7,783,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VALE. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 1.9% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 62,076 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $693,000 after purchasing an additional 1,187 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Vale in the second quarter valued at about $125,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Vale by 32.5% during the 2nd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 844,016 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $9,428,000 after acquiring an additional 207,129 shares during the period. Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 46.5% during the 2nd quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 35,959 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $402,000 after acquiring an additional 11,417 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vale by 15.6% in the 2nd quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 15,524 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $173,000 after acquiring an additional 2,090 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com started coverage on Vale in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Wolfe Research lowered shares of Vale from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $14.38.

Vale Price Performance

VALE stock opened at $8.90 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.91. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $10.11 and its 200-day simple moving average is $10.62. Vale S.A. has a 52-week low of $8.69 and a 52-week high of $16.08. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $9.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.61 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 21.07% and a net margin of 22.59%. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Vale S.A. will post 2.08 EPS for the current year.

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.