Natixis Advisors LLC Acquires 197,154 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE - Free Report) by 50.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 589,452 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 197,154 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC's holdings in Vale were worth $6,885,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Pacifica Partners Inc. bought a new position in shares of Vale during the 2nd quarter worth $27,000. Lowe Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Vale during the second quarter worth about $45,000. Phillips Wealth Planners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Vale in the third quarter worth about $118,000. Vawter Financial Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Vale in the second quarter valued at approximately $124,000. Finally, Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Vale in the second quarter valued at approximately $125,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VALE. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Wolfe Research cut Vale from a "peer perform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group cut Vale from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $14.00 to $11.50 in a report on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com began coverage on Vale in a report on Friday, October 18th. They set a "buy" rating for the company. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, September 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $15.13.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of VALE stock traded up $0.06 during trading on Friday, hitting $10.02. The company had a trading volume of 19,120,385 shares, compared to its average volume of 27,480,199. The stock's 50-day moving average is $10.77 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.06. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Vale S.A. has a 52 week low of $9.66 and a 52 week high of $16.08.

Vale (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.15. Vale had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 21.07%. The company had revenue of $9.55 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 2.12 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.