J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG Sells 47,000 Shares of Vale S.A. $VALE

J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG lowered its position in shares of Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) by 40.8% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 47,000 shares during the quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG’s holdings in Vale were worth $741,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VALE. Vontobel Holding Ltd. grew its stake in Vale by 59.5% in the second quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 97,506 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $947,000 after purchasing an additional 36,372 shares in the last quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. boosted its holdings in shares of Vale by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. BNP PARIBAS ASSET MANAGEMENT Holding S.A. now owns 529,967 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,019,000 after buying an additional 55,543 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. bought a new position in shares of Vale in the third quarter valued at $20,754,000. Advisory Resource Group acquired a new position in Vale during the third quarter worth $1,434,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Vale by 5.3% during the second quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 20,080,222 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $194,978,000 after buying an additional 1,002,588 shares during the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VALE. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Vale from $13.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Zacks Research raised Vale from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Jefferies Financial Group set a $15.00 price objective on Vale and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, November 3rd. Scotiabank lowered Vale from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $15.00 in a report on Thursday, January 8th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Vale in a report on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vale currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.38.

Vale Stock Performance

NYSE:VALE opened at $16.92 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.79. The stock has a market cap of $76.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.01, a PEG ratio of 0.48 and a beta of 0.53. Vale S.A. has a 1-year low of $8.06 and a 1-year high of $17.34. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.49 by $0.14. Vale had a return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 14.69%.The firm had revenue of $10.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.39 billion. Research analysts anticipate that Vale S.A. will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a special dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th were given a $0.2331 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 12th. Vale’s payout ratio is presently 67.69%.

Vale Profile

Vale SA is a Brazilian multinational mining company and one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore and iron ore pellets. In addition to iron ore, the company produces and sells a range of bulk commodities and metals, including nickel, copper, coal, manganese, ferroalloys and cobalt, and it participates in the fertilizer inputs market. Vale also operates extensive logistics assets — including rail, port and maritime logistics — that support its mining and export activities and provide services to third parties in some regions.

Headquartered in Brazil, Vale maintains a global operational footprint with mining, processing and shipping activities across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.