Vale Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:VALE)

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the target of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 68,789 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 87% compared to the typical daily volume of 36,712 put options.

Institutional Trading of Vale

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Vale by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,605,338 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $427,550,000 after acquiring an additional 5,635,167 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda lifted its position in shares of Vale by 60.6% in the 2nd quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 21,969,937 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $245,404,000 after purchasing an additional 8,288,112 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund boosted its stake in shares of Vale by 3,692.5% during the third quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $212,576,000 after purchasing an additional 17,720,100 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in Vale by 10.7% during the third quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 17,404,942 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,290,000 after buying an additional 1,682,544 shares during the period. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its holdings in Vale by 123.4% during the third quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 12,059,814 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $140,859,000 after buying an additional 6,660,933 shares during the period. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts recently issued reports on VALE shares. Morgan Stanley cut Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. UBS Group downgraded Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $14.00 to $11.50 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Scotiabank dropped their price target on Vale from $16.00 to $14.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Wolfe Research downgraded shares of Vale from a “peer perform” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Vale has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $14.38.

Vale Stock Performance

NYSE VALE opened at $9.47 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Vale has a twelve month low of $9.33 and a twelve month high of $16.08. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $10.41 and a 200-day moving average price of $10.77. The firm has a market cap of $42.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.91.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.15. Vale had a return on equity of 21.07% and a net margin of 22.59%. The business had revenue of $9.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Vale will post 2.08 EPS for the current fiscal year.

About Vale

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.