Vale (NYSE:VALE) Trading Down 2% Following Analyst Downgrade

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)’s stock price dropped 2% on Friday after Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on the stock from $16.00 to $15.50. Morgan Stanley currently has an overweight rating on the stock. Vale traded as low as $10.55 and last traded at $10.55. Approximately 2,982,794 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 89% from the average daily volume of 26,238,063 shares. The stock had previously closed at $10.76.

VALE has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 5th. BNP Paribas raised Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.72.

Institutional Trading of Vale

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda increased its stake in shares of Vale by 60.6% in the second quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $245,404,000 after purchasing an additional 8,288,112 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP increased 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 acquiring an additional 2,224,756 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in Vale by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 12,269,261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $149,561,000 after acquiring an additional 485,702 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Vale by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,853,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $132,408,000 after acquiring an additional 2,578,900 shares during the period. Finally, Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew its stake in shares of Vale by 20.4% in the second quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 10,950,729 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $118,815,000 after purchasing an additional 1,854,940 shares in the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Vale Price Performance

The business has a fifty day moving average price of $10.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.52. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The company has a market capitalization of $46.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.93.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released 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. Vale had a net margin of 23.07% and a return on equity of 22.23%. The firm had revenue of $9.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.97 billion. On average, research analysts expect that Vale S.A. will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th were issued a dividend of $0.3698 per share. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, August 5th. This represents a yield of 12.1%. Vale’s payout ratio is presently 64.09%.

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.