Vale (NYSE:VALE) Rating Lowered to Neutral at UBS Group

Vale (NYSE:VALE) was downgraded by UBS Group from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They presently have a $11.50 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, down from their prior price target of $14.00. UBS Group’s target price would suggest a potential upside of 15.46% from the company’s current price.

Several other research firms also recently issued reports on VALE. Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Vale from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Vale from $17.00 to $16.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 15th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $15.50 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Vale in a research report on Friday, October 18th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Vale has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $15.83.

Vale Trading Down 2.5 %

NYSE:VALE opened at $9.96 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. Vale has a 1 year low of $9.66 and a 1 year high of $16.08. The stock has a market cap of $44.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.73, a P/E/G ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.80 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.18.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.15. Vale had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 21.07%. 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 prior year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that Vale will post 2.12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VALE. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 60.6% in the 2nd quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $245,404,000 after buying an additional 8,288,112 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in Vale by 395.3% in the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,152,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,889,000 after acquiring an additional 5,707,969 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Vale by 110.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,459,485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $60,983,000 after purchasing an additional 2,871,094 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 27.8% in the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,853,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $132,408,000 after purchasing an additional 2,578,900 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in shares of Vale in the third quarter valued at about $30,038,000. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.