Natixis Advisors LLC Sells 215,573 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Natixis Advisors LLC trimmed its stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE - Free Report) by 36.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 373,879 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 215,573 shares during the quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC's holdings in Vale were worth $3,316,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VALE. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD increased its position in shares of Vale by 13.3% in the fourth quarter. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD now owns 11,754,809 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $109,202,000 after acquiring an additional 1,381,475 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in shares of Vale by 25.3% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 9,965,672 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $88,396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,014,652 shares during the period. Rakuten Securities Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 83.7% during the fourth quarter. Rakuten Securities Inc. now owns 11,744 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $104,000 after buying an additional 5,352 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its position in Vale by 88.8% in the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 9,738 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $86,000 after purchasing an additional 4,580 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in Vale by 55.4% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 16,671 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $148,000 after acquiring an additional 5,943 shares during the period. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research raised Vale from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Tuesday. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut shares of Vale from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vale currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $13.26.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of VALE stock traded up $0.05 on Wednesday, hitting $10.14. 22,938,691 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,435,801. The company has a 50 day moving average of $9.53 and a 200 day moving average of $9.89. Vale S.A. has a 12 month low of $8.38 and a 12 month high of $13.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The stock has a market cap of $46.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85.

Vale (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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). The company had revenue of $10.12 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.03 billion. Vale had a net margin of 16.15% and a return on equity of 17.38%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were issued a dividend of $0.3758 per share. This is an increase from Vale's previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. This represents a yield of 7.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. Vale's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.08%.

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.