The latest trading session saw VALE S.A. (VALE) ending at $9.94, denoting a -1.29% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.77%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 1.42%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 2.28%.

The company's shares have seen a decrease of 0.4% over the last month, not keeping up with the Basic Materials sector's loss of 0.29% and outstripping the S&P 500's loss of 5.73%.

The upcoming earnings release of VALE S.A. will be of great interest to investors. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.43, up 10.26% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $8.81 billion, indicating a 4.09% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $1.86 per share and a revenue of $39.97 billion, indicating changes of +2.2% and +5.02%, respectively, from the former year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for VALE S.A. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the company's business health and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, there's been a 0.65% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. VALE S.A. currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In the context of valuation, VALE S.A. is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 5.4. This represents no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.4.

Investors should also note that VALE has a PEG ratio of 0.31 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Mining - Iron industry held an average PEG ratio of 0.31.

The Mining - Iron industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 82, placing it within the top 33% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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