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

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) 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 were traded 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.

A number of other research analysts have also recently weighed in on VALE. UBS Group reduced 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. BNP Paribas upgraded shares of 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 investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.72.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vale

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Vale during the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new position in shares of Vale in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Vale in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 16,947.4% during the 4th quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 3,239 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 3,220 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Founders Capital Management increased its stake in shares of Vale by 111.1% in the first quarter. Founders Capital Management now owns 3,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $46,000 after buying an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Trading Down 3.3 %

The company has a quick ratio of 0.73, a current ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43. The firm has a market cap of $46.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50 day moving average is $10.52 and its 200-day moving average is $11.51.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $9.92 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.97 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

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