Artemis Investment Management LLP Takes $23.62 Million Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Artemis Investment Management LLP bought a new stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 2,022,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $23,622,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in Vale by 109.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 101,406 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,236,000 after purchasing an additional 52,906 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its holdings in Vale by 395.3% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,152,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,889,000 after buying an additional 5,707,969 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Vale during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,379,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 10.4% during the second quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 5,398,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $58,690,000 after acquiring an additional 508,100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Vale by 180.4% in the first quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 683,428 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,331,000 after acquiring an additional 439,733 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VALE has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on Vale from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Wolfe Research cut shares of Vale from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 17th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, June 21st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $16.17.

Vale Stock Performance

NYSE:VALE opened at $11.06 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $10.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.41. 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. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.11, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.93.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.38 by $0.05. The firm 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 forecast that Vale S.A. will post 2.14 EPS for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Investors of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.3698 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 12.1%. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.