Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the eleven research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $13.89.

A number of brokerages have issued reports on VALE. StockNews.com began coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating for the company. Wolfe Research upgraded Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vale

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VALE. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $427,550,000 after buying an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda raised its stake in Vale by 60.6% during the second quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $245,404,000 after acquiring an additional 8,288,112 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 3,692.5% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $212,576,000 after acquiring an additional 17,720,100 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 10.7% in the 3rd quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,404,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,290,000 after purchasing an additional 1,682,544 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Vale by 123.4% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 12,059,814 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $140,859,000 after purchasing an additional 6,660,933 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of VALE stock opened at $8.99 on Monday. Vale has a 1 year low of $8.38 and a 1 year high of $14.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average is $9.21 and its 200-day moving average is $10.18. The stock has a market cap of $39.76 billion, a PE ratio of 4.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.92.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.15. Vale had a return on equity of 21.07% and a net margin of 22.59%. The company had revenue of $9.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.66 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Vale will post 1.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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.