Topic: How To Invest

Hello Pat: Can you give me your input on Vale SA? Thank you again for all your great advice and steady hand in these markets.

Article Excerpt

Vale SA (ADR), $19.42, symbol VALE on New York (Shares outstanding: 3.3 billion; Market cap: $64.1 billion; www.vale.com), is one of the world’s largest iron ore producers. The company gets about 59% of its revenue from iron ore. The rest comes from base metals, coal and fertilizer. Vale was wholly owned by the Brazilian government until part of it (and part of oil giant Petroleo Brasileiro SA) were privatized in the early 1990s. The government has kept a controlling stake in Vale through holding companies, public-pension-fund stakes and other investments. In the first quarter of 2012, Vale’s revenue fell 16.3%, to $11.3 billion from $13.5 billion a year earlier. Earnings fell 43.9%, to $3.9 billion, or $0.74 per ADR, from $6.8 billion, or $1.29 per ADR. The global economic slowdown pushed down the price of iron ore during the quarter, and abnormally high rainfall slowed Vale’s mining operations. Asia accounted for 51.4% of the company’s revenue in the latest quarter, followed by South America…