Vale (NYSE:VALE) Releases Earnings Results, Misses Expectations By $0.02 EPS

Vale (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The basic materials company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.02), Zacks reports. The company had revenue of $8.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $8.39 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 17.38% and a net margin of 16.15%.

Vale Stock Performance

NYSE:VALE traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $9.62. The stock had a trading volume of 22,811,971 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,583,135. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $9.56 and a 200 day simple moving average of $9.61. Vale has a twelve month low of $8.06 and a twelve month high of $13.14. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $43.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.68, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.73.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were given a $0.3758 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 10th. This represents a yield of 7.5%. This is an increase from Vale's previous semi-annual dividend of $0.30. Vale's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 54.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VALE. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed a "sector perform" rating and issued a $11.00 target price (down from $12.00) on shares of Vale in a report on Thursday, April 17th. Bank of America raised shares of Vale from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $11.50 in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their target price on shares of 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 shares of Vale from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Vale from $10.50 to $9.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $12.13.

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.