Virtus ETF Advisers LLC Grows Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Virtus ETF Advisers LLC grew its stake in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 17.6% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 17,005 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,541 shares during the quarter. Virtus ETF Advisers LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,163,226 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $418,338,000 after purchasing an additional 10,557,888 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in Vale by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 33,995,398 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $301,541,000 after acquiring an additional 5,775,590 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Vale by 328.3% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,349,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $153,891,000 after acquiring an additional 13,298,912 shares during the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 11,754,809 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $109,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381,475 shares during the period. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Vale by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 9,965,672 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $88,396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,014,652 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VALE has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded Vale from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $11.50 in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They set a “hold” rating for the company. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price on Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $12.44.

Vale Stock Down 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:VALE opened at $9.51 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a 50 day moving average of $9.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $9.62. The company has a market capitalization of $43.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.73. Vale S.A. has a 52-week low of $8.06 and a 52-week high of $13.14.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.02). Vale had a return on equity of 17.38% and a net margin of 16.15%. The business had revenue of $8.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $8.39 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.3758 per share. This represents a yield of 7.5%. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is 54.35%.

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.