Profund Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Profund Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 3.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 144,183 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 5,457 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $1,611,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Versant Capital Management Inc acquired a new stake in shares of Vale during the 1st quarter valued at about $26,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Vale during the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Vale during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Vale during the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, Founders Capital Management grew its position in shares of Vale by 111.1% during the 1st quarter. Founders Capital Management now owns 3,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on VALE. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Vale from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday. Wolfe Research cut Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, July 5th. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.72.

Vale Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of Vale stock opened at $10.40 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $46.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.93. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $10.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.49. Vale S.A. has a 1-year low of $9.66 and a 1-year high of $16.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.73.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued 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. The business had revenue of $9.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.97 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 22.23% and a net margin of 23.07%. Analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 2.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

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