Milestone Asset Management LLC Has $764,000 Holdings in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Milestone Asset Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 359.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 68,413 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 53,524 shares during the period. Milestone Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $764,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VALE. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in Vale during the 4th quarter worth approximately $31,000. Rakuten Securities Inc. bought a new position in Vale in the fourth quarter valued at $31,000. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new position in Vale in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in Vale in the 1st quarter valued at $26,000. Finally, Pacifica Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Vale during the 2nd quarter worth about $27,000. 21.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VALE. UBS Group dropped their price objective on Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 5th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on Vale from $18.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 21st. BNP Paribas upgraded Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Finally, Wolfe Research cut shares of 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 issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.72.

Vale Trading Up 3.2 %

Shares of Vale stock traded up $0.33 during trading on Monday, hitting $10.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 47,884,982 shares, compared to its average volume of 26,493,018. The stock has a market cap of $47.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.96. Vale S.A. has a 52 week low of $9.66 and a 52 week high of $16.08. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $10.96 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $12.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.79.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 5th will be given a dividend of $0.3698 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 12.1%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 5th. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is 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.