Vale S.A. $VALE Shares Sold by D.A. Davidson & CO.

D.A. Davidson & CO. cut its holdings in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 81.5% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 34,347 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 151,570 shares during the quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Vale were worth $546,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VALE. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Vale by 58.2% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 89,322,261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,163,896,000 after purchasing an additional 32,864,929 shares during the period. GQG Partners LLC raised its holdings in Vale by 42.4% during the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 65,132,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $848,677,000 after purchasing an additional 19,397,396 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings in Vale by 2,239.6% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 41,596,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $541,996,000 after purchasing an additional 39,818,066 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Vale by 16.7% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 28,961,848 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $314,526,000 after purchasing an additional 4,151,563 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Vale by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 22,480,635 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $292,923,000 after acquiring an additional 208,128 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts recently issued reports on VALE shares. Bank of America upgraded Vale from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $18.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 2nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Vale in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, July 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $16.50 target price (down from $19.50) on shares of Vale in a report on Wednesday, July 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and eight have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.31.

Vale Trading Down 0.2%

NYSE VALE opened at $14.79 on Friday. Vale S.A. has a one year low of $9.36 and a one year high of $17.94. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $15.34 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 0.79 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $67.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.08 and a beta of 0.46.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.52 by ($0.08). Vale had a return on equity of 21.10% and a net margin of 7.21%.The business had revenue of $9.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.53 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 1.98 EPS for the current year.

Vale Profile

Vale SA is a Brazilian multinational mining company and one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore and iron ore pellets. In addition to iron ore, the company produces and sells a range of bulk commodities and metals, including nickel, copper, coal, manganese, ferroalloys and cobalt, and it participates in the fertilizer inputs market. Vale also operates extensive logistics assets — including rail, port and maritime logistics — that support its mining and export activities and provide services to third parties in some regions.

Headquartered in Brazil, Vale maintains a global operational footprint with mining, processing and shipping activities across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.