Prosperitas Financial LLC Sells 187,950 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Prosperitas Financial LLC cut its position in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 92.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 15,430 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 187,950 shares during the period. Prosperitas Financial LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $137,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its stake 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 valued at $212,576,000 after purchasing an additional 17,720,100 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP bought a new stake in shares of Vale in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $80,300,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 123.4% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 12,059,814 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $140,859,000 after purchasing an additional 6,660,933 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $427,550,000 after purchasing an additional 5,635,167 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its stake in shares of Vale by 106.0% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 9,721,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,226,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,228 shares during the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VALE has been the subject of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research raised Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on Vale in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. Morgan Stanley lowered Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lowered 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. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price target on Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vale currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.26.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of VALE stock opened at $9.65 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $9.18 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.98. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.78 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.70, a P/E/G ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.91. Vale S.A. has a 52-week low of $8.38 and a 52-week high of $13.68. 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 (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.36). The firm had revenue of $10.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.03 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 17.38% and a net margin of 16.15%. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.3758 per share. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. This represents a yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 10th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 88.89%.

Vale Company 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.