Vale (NYSE:VALE) Reaches New 1-Year High on Analyst Upgrade

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Tuesday after Zacks Research upgraded the stock from a hold rating to a strong-buy rating. The stock traded as high as $12.48 and last traded at $12.4310, with a volume of 3445495 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $12.30.

VALE has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group increased their target price on Vale from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, October 6th. Scotiabank raised shares of Vale from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $14.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $15.00 target price on shares of Vale and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of Vale from $13.50 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $11.50 price target on shares of Vale in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.61.

Institutional Trading of Vale

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 60.0% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 1,030 shares during the last quarter. Banque Transatlantique SA bought a new position in Vale during the first quarter worth $30,000. CENTRAL TRUST Co acquired a new position in Vale during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in Vale by 98.4% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,075 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 2,021 shares during the period. Finally, Huntington National Bank boosted its holdings in Vale by 36.3% in the 3rd quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 4,713 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 1,256 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Stock Performance

The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $11.22 and its 200-day moving average price is $10.26. The company has a market cap of $56.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.14 and a beta of 0.82. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.14. Vale had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 18.14%. The business had revenue of $10.42 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.39 billion. As a group, research analysts forecast that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.