Vale S.A. $VALE Stock Sold by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Key Points

• Assenagon Asset Management cut its Vale stake by 88.5%, selling 6.13 million shares and retaining 797,773 shares valued at approximately $10.7 million.
• Analyst sentiment remains cautious: Vale has a consensus “Hold” rating and an average price target of $15.75, while shares recently opened at $13.12.
• Vale missed quarterly earnings and revenue expectations, reporting $0.36 in EPS and $10.24 billion in revenue, but recently paid a special dividend of $0.3088 per share.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lowered its stake in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE - Free Report) by 88.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 797,773 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 6,129,993 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.'s holdings in Vale were worth $10,698,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its holdings in Vale by 119.9% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,837,416 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $347,433,000 after purchasing an additional 11,905,247 shares in the last quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp bought a new position in Vale in the 1st quarter worth about $128,239,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its holdings in Vale by 15.3% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 47,947,703 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $762,848,000 after buying an additional 6,351,703 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda increased its position in shares of Vale by 1,302.4% during the first quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 5,539,608 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $88,135,000 after buying an additional 5,144,590 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Vale by 1,287.2% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,262,015 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $83,719,000 after buying an additional 4,882,675 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VALE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of Vale from $17.00 to $15.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 13th. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, September 29th. Zacks Research raised shares of Vale from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Monday, September 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of Vale from $21.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price target on shares of Vale from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $15.75.

Vale Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE VALE opened at $13.12 on Tuesday. Vale S.A. has a 12 month low of $11.22 and a 12 month high of $17.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $59.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.38 and a beta of 0.42. The business has a 50-day moving average of $14.25 and a 200-day moving average of $15.24.

Vale (NYSE:VALE - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.10). Vale had a net margin of 5.11% and a return on equity of 19.87%. The company had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $10.47 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Vale S.A. will post 1.70 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a special dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 10th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 13th were given a dividend of $0.3088 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 13th. Vale's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 89.80%.

About Vale

Vale SA is a Brazil-based global mining and logistics company best known for producing iron ore and iron ore pellets, key raw materials used in steelmaking. The company also produces nickel, copper, manganese ore, coal and other mineral products, with operations spanning exploration, extraction, processing and transportation.

Vale operates an extensive logistics network that includes railways, ports and maritime transportation systems, primarily supporting the movement of minerals from its production sites to domestic and international customers.

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