Pzena Investment Management LLC Purchases 32,483 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Pzena Investment Management LLC raised its position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 12.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 285,881 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 32,483 shares during the quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Vale were worth $2,536,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund lifted its holdings in Vale by 3,692.5% during the third 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 purchased a new stake in shares of Vale during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $80,300,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in 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 worth $140,859,000 after buying an additional 6,660,933 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its stake in 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 buying an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in Vale by 106.0% during 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 acquiring an additional 5,001,228 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the company. Barclays cut their price target on Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley lowered Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research raised shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.26.

Vale Trading Up 1.7 %

Shares of Vale stock opened at $9.40 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.58. Vale S.A. has a 1 year low of $8.38 and a 1 year high of $13.14. The firm has a market cap of $42.64 billion, a PE ratio of 6.52, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.27 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.93.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be issued a $0.3758 dividend. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. This represents a dividend yield of 7.5%. 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.