Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Sells 123,456 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC reduced its stake in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE - Free Report) by 31.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 266,518 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 123,456 shares during the period. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC's holdings in Vale were worth $2,364,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its position in Vale by 18.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $427,550,000 after buying an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund raised its stake in shares of Vale by 3,692.5% in the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $212,576,000 after acquiring an additional 17,720,100 shares during the last quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 123.4% in the 3rd quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 12,059,814 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $140,859,000 after acquiring an additional 6,660,933 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in Vale by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 11,117,942 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $129,858,000 after acquiring an additional 507,245 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in Vale by 25.3% during the 4th quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 9,965,672 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $88,396,000 after purchasing an additional 2,014,652 shares in the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of Vale from $16.00 to $15.25 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, December 4th. Scotiabank dropped their price objective 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. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research raised Vale from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut Vale from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $14.50 to $11.30 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Eight 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, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $13.26.

Vale Stock Down 1.1 %

NYSE VALE traded down $0.12 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $10.06. 21,440,300 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 29,867,813. The company has a market capitalization of $45.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.85. Vale S.A. has a one year low of $8.38 and a one year 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 company's 50-day moving average is $9.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.89.

Vale (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.56 by ($0.36). Vale had a return on equity of 17.38% and a net margin of 16.15%. The business had revenue of $10.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $10.03 billion. On average, analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 10th were given a dividend of $0.3758 per share. This is a positive change 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 is 52.08%.

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.