Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) Announces $0.23 Special Dividend

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) declared a special dividend on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 12th will be given a dividend of 0.2331 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, January 14th. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 12th.

Vale has increased its dividend by an average of 0.3%annually over the last three years. Vale has a dividend payout ratio of 44.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Vale to earn $2.11 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.79 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 37.4%.

Vale Price Performance

NYSE:VALE opened at $12.81 on Wednesday. Vale has a 52-week low of $8.06 and a 52-week high of $13.62. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $11.91 and a 200 day moving average of $10.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $58.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.85 and a beta of 0.57.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $10.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $10.39 billion. Vale had a return on equity of 18.60% and a net margin of 14.69%. On average, research analysts expect that Vale will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VALE. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Vale in a research note on Monday. Clarkson Capital assumed coverage on shares of Vale in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. They set a “buy” rating and a $12.00 price objective on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Vale from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “cautious” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 4th. Scotiabank raised Vale from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $14.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 18th. Finally, Morgan Stanley set a $11.50 price target on Vale in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Vale currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $12.96.

Vale Company Profile

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.