Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. Grows Position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE - Free Report) by 113.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 467,937 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 248,391 shares during the period. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A.'s holdings in Vale were worth $4,162,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in 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 valued at $153,891,000 after purchasing an additional 13,298,912 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of Vale by 28.8% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,163,226 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $418,338,000 after buying an additional 10,557,888 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Vale by 20.5% in the 4th quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 33,995,398 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $301,541,000 after buying an additional 5,775,590 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in shares of 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 last quarter. Finally, Fourth Sail Capital LP purchased a new stake in shares of Vale in the 4th quarter worth $31,305,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have recently commented on VALE. Bank of America raised Vale from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $11.50 in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, UBS Group cut their price target on Vale from $10.50 to $9.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Monday. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $12.13.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of Vale stock remained flat at $9.60 during trading hours on Tuesday. 24,641,536 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 30,599,993. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $9.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $9.61. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market cap of $43.57 billion, a PE ratio of 6.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.73. Vale S.A. has a 12-month low of $8.06 and a 12-month high of $13.14.

Vale (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $8.12 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $8.39 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 17.38% and a net margin of 16.15%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.3758 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a dividend yield of 7.5%. This is an increase from Vale's previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. Vale's payout ratio is currently 54.35%.

Vale 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.