Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Short Interest Down 15.0% in February

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the target of a significant drop in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 113,190,000 shares, a drop of 15.0% from the February 13th total of 133,120,000 shares. Approximately 2.7% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 34,030,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.3 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of VALE. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 3,692.5% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,576,000 after acquiring an additional 17,720,100 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 328.3% during the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,349,581 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $153,891,000 after acquiring an additional 13,298,912 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 28.8% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,163,226 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $418,338,000 after acquiring an additional 10,557,888 shares during the last quarter. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in shares of Vale during the 3rd quarter worth $80,300,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted 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 acquiring an additional 6,660,933 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VALE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wolfe Research raised shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report 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 data from MarketBeat.com, Vale has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.26.

Vale Trading Down 0.4 %

NYSE:VALE opened at $10.15 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Vale has a 12 month low of $8.38 and a 12 month high of $13.14. The company has a market cap of $46.05 billion, a PE ratio of 7.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $9.90.

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

Vale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.3758 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 10th. This is a boost from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 52.08%.

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.