Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Short Interest Update

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALEGet Free Report) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of December. As of December 31st, there was short interest totalling 74,910,000 shares, a growth of 24.0% from the December 15th total of 60,390,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 28,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.6 days. Approximately 1.8% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vale

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Mutual Advisors LLC raised its stake in Vale by 23.7% during the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 23,184 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,000 after buying an additional 4,449 shares during the last quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vale by 166.4% in the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 73,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $653,000 after acquiring an additional 45,949 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its position in Vale by 39.4% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 349,851 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,103,000 after acquiring an additional 98,899 shares during the last quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Vale in the fourth quarter valued at about $101,000. Finally, Commons Capital LLC purchased a new position in Vale in the fourth quarter worth about $486,000. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have weighed in on VALE. Barclays cut their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. UBS Group lowered Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $14.00 to $11.50 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, September 23rd. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.89.

Read Our Latest Report on Vale

Vale Price Performance

NYSE:VALE traded up $0.18 on Friday, reaching $8.95. 59,294,680 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 22,449,796. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $9.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $10.28. Vale has a 12 month low of $8.38 and a 12 month high of $14.47. 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:VALEGet Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.15. Vale had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 21.07%. The company had revenue of $9.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.66 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Vale will post 1.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Vale

(Get Free Report)

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.

Featured Articles

Receive News & Ratings for Vale Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Vale and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.