[Ferro-alloys.com] Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) announced a dividend on Friday, June 18th, investing.com reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 25th will be paid a dividend of 1.8803 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, July 8th. This represents a dividend yield of 8.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 24th. This is a boost from Vale's previous dividend of $0.30.

Vale has raised its dividend payment by 3.5% over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 1 consecutive years.

Vale stock traded up $0.43 during trading on Friday, reaching $21.51. The stock had a trading volume of 30,780,620 shares, compared to its average volume of 30,389,596. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.60 and a current ratio of 1.96. Vale has a 52-week low of $10.06 and a 52-week high of $23.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $110.31 billion, a PE ratio of 10.81, a PEG ratio of 0.14 and a beta of 1.00. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $20.91.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Sunday, April 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters' consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $12.65 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $12.52 billion. Vale had a net margin of 22.30% and a return on equity of 49.76%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Vale will post 5.02 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Vale from $25.00 to $29.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, June 3rd. HSBC boosted their price objective on shares of Vale from $21.50 to $25.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 28th. Exane BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Vale from an "outperform" rating to an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, March 12th. Bank of America reiterated a "buy" rating on shares of Vale in a research note on Tuesday, March 16th. Finally, BNP Paribas restated an "underperform" rating and issued a $18.30 price objective on shares of Vale in a research note on Thursday, March 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Vale currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $20.53.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]