Todd Asset Management LLC Cuts Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Todd Asset Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 11.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 2,713,169 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 360,629 shares during the period. Todd Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $24,066,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VALE. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $427,550,000 after buying an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 3,692.5% in the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,576,000 after acquiring an additional 17,720,100 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Vale by 10.7% during 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 during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its stake in Vale by 123.4% in the third 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. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in Vale by 0.4% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,906,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $139,073,000 after buying an additional 53,061 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on VALE. UBS Group cut Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $14.00 to $11.50 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley cut shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vale currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.26.

Vale Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:VALE opened at $9.98 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $9.12 and a 200-day moving average price of $9.99. The stock has a market cap of $45.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Vale S.A. has a 12 month low of $8.38 and a 12 month high of $13.68.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.20 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.36). Vale had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 17.38%. The firm had revenue of $10.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.03 billion. Equities analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a $0.3758 dividend. This represents a yield of 7.5%. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is presently 88.89%.

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.