Morgan Stanley Cuts Vale (NYSE:VALE) Price Target to $15.50

Vale (NYSE:VALE) had its price objective reduced by Morgan Stanley from $16.00 to $15.50 in a research note published on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They currently have an overweight rating on the basic materials company’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. BNP Paribas upgraded Vale from an underperform rating to a neutral rating in a research note on Friday, June 21st. Wolfe Research cut Vale from an outperform rating to a peer perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 17th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, July 5th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vale currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $16.72.

Vale Trading Down 3.3 %

NYSE:VALE opened at $10.40 on Thursday. Vale has a fifty-two week low of $9.66 and a fifty-two week high of $16.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.43, a current ratio of 1.08 and a quick ratio of 0.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $46.62 billion, a PE ratio of 5.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.93. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $10.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.51.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 25th. The basic materials company reported $0.43 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.38 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $9.92 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.97 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 22.23% and a net margin of 23.07%. Sell-side analysts expect that Vale will post 2.13 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 11th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 5th were given a dividend of $0.3698 per share. This is a positive change from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.32. The ex-dividend date was Monday, August 5th. This represents a dividend yield of 12.1%. Vale’s payout ratio is 64.09%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VALE. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda increased its position in shares of Vale by 60.6% during the 2nd quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $245,404,000 after purchasing an additional 8,288,112 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 395.3% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,152,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,889,000 after acquiring an additional 5,707,969 shares during the last quarter. Norden Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 3,952.2% during the 1st quarter. Norden Group LLC now owns 3,343,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $40,758,000 after acquiring an additional 3,261,060 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 2,871,094 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 27.8% during the 2nd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 11,853,914 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $132,408,000 after acquiring an additional 2,578,900 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

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.