Financial Counselors Inc. Decreases Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Financial Counselors Inc. lowered its position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 8.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,250 shares during the quarter. Financial Counselors Inc.’s holdings in Vale were worth $121,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its position in Vale by 18.2% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $427,550,000 after acquiring an additional 5,635,167 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its stake in shares of Vale by 123.4% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD raised its position in shares of Vale by 13.3% during the 4th quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 11,754,809 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $109,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381,475 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in Vale by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,117,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $129,858,000 after buying an additional 507,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Vale by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 9,965,672 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $88,396,000 after buying an additional 2,014,652 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Stock Performance

Shares of VALE stock opened at $10.06 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $45.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85. Vale S.A. has a one year low of $8.38 and a one year high of $13.14. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $9.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $9.90.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a $0.3758 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 7.5%. This is an increase from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.08%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Vale presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.26.

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.