American Century Companies Inc. Increases Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 8.5% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,336,882 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 260,550 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in Vale were worth $29,598,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Virtu Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vale in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,260,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd bought a new stake in Vale during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $209,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in Vale by 6.7% in the 4th quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc. now owns 254,235 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,255,000 after purchasing an additional 16,015 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its stake in Vale by 94.6% in the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 39,051 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 18,985 shares during the period. Finally, Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Vale by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 138,247 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,230,000 after purchasing an additional 23,465 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Vale Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of VALE stock opened at $10.06 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $45.64 billion, a PE ratio of 6.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85. Vale S.A. has a 1 year low of $8.38 and a 1 year high of $13.14. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.61 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $9.90. 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 (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.20 earnings per share 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%. Research analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 10th. This is a positive change from Vale’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.