434,313 Vale S.A. $VALE Shares Sold by RWC Asset Management LLP

RWC Asset Management LLP lessened its holdings in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 28.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,066,059 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 434,313 shares during the period. RWC Asset Management LLP’s holdings in Vale were worth $14,296,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VALE. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of Vale by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 47,947,703 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $762,848,000 after purchasing an additional 6,351,703 shares in the last quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Vale by 5.4% during the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 23,685,915 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $376,843,000 after purchasing an additional 1,205,280 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Vale by 119.9% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,837,416 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $347,433,000 after buying an additional 11,905,247 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in shares of Vale by 27.3% in the first quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 14,053,337 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $223,589,000 after buying an additional 3,012,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp acquired a new stake in shares of Vale in the first quarter valued at approximately $128,239,000. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on VALE shares. Morgan Stanley set a $15.50 price target on Vale in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. Barclays lowered their price objective on Vale from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, October 13th. Freedom Broker cut Vale from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on Vale from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Vale from $15.00 to $14.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, ten have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Vale currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $15.71.

Vale Price Performance

VALE stock traded up $0.18 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $12.38. The stock had a trading volume of 25,696,226 shares, compared to its average volume of 34,516,964. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. Vale S.A. has a 52 week low of $11.40 and a 52 week high of $17.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.28 and a beta of 0.42. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.13 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.14.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $10.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.47 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 19.87% and a net margin of 5.11%. As a group, research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.65 EPS for the current year.

Vale Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a special dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 13th were paid a dividend of $0.3088 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 13th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio is presently 89.80%.

Vale Profile

Vale SA is a Brazil-based global mining and logistics company best known for producing iron ore and iron ore pellets, key raw materials used in steelmaking. The company also produces nickel, copper, manganese ore, coal and other mineral products, with operations spanning exploration, extraction, processing and transportation.

Vale operates an extensive logistics network that includes railways, ports and maritime transportation systems, primarily supporting the movement of minerals from its production sites to domestic and international customers.