Bridgewater Associates LP Acquires 1,941,638 Shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE)

Bridgewater Associates LP increased its position in Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE - Free Report) by 95.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,977,115 shares of the basic materials company's stock after acquiring an additional 1,941,638 shares during the quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP owned about 0.09% of Vale worth $35,277,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VALE. FMR LLC raised its position in shares of Vale by 28.8% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 47,163,226 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $418,338,000 after purchasing an additional 10,557,888 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 328.3% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 17,349,581 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $153,891,000 after acquiring an additional 13,298,912 shares during the period. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD grew 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 valued at $109,202,000 after purchasing an additional 1,381,475 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in shares of 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 during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. lifted its holdings in 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 worth $86,226,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,228 shares in the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VALE has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research upgraded Vale from an "underperform" rating to a "peer perform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target 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. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a "sector perform" rating and issued a $11.00 price objective (down previously from $12.00) on shares of Vale in a research report on Thursday. StockNews.com assumed coverage on Vale in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. They issued a "hold" rating on the stock. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a "sector perform" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 6th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Vale presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $12.44.

Vale Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of Vale stock traded down $0.02 during trading on Monday, reaching $9.09. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,015,346 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,495,609. The company has a market cap of $41.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.31, a PEG ratio of 0.31 and a beta of 0.73. The firm's 50-day moving average is $9.58 and its two-hundred day moving average is $9.68. Vale S.A. has a 52-week low of $8.06 and a 52-week high of $13.14. 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 (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $10.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.03 billion. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 21st. Investors of record on Monday, March 10th were issued 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 was Monday, March 10th. Vale's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.