Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on Vale (NYSE:VALE)

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Investors purchased 106,051 put options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 161% compared to the typical volume of 40,636 put options.

Institutional Trading of Vale

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund grew its stake in Vale by 3,692.5% during the 3rd quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund now owns 18,200,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $212,576,000 after purchasing an additional 17,720,100 shares in the last quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda boosted its stake 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 valued at $245,404,000 after buying an additional 8,288,112 shares during the period. Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new position in shares of Vale during the third quarter worth about $80,300,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. grew its position in shares of 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 worth $140,859,000 after buying an additional 6,660,933 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Vale by 395.3% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 7,152,069 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,889,000 after buying an additional 5,707,969 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VALE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their price objective on Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research raised Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $14.50 to $11.30 in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Vale from $16.50 to $15.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, September 23rd. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Vale currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.89.

Vale Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE:VALE traded up $0.01 on Thursday, reaching $8.77. 142,353,984 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 38,207,016. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 4.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.92. Vale has a 52-week low of $8.38 and a 52-week high of $14.47. The company has a quick ratio of 0.58, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The business has a fifty day moving average of $9.39 and a 200-day moving average of $10.30.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.15. The firm had revenue of $9.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $9.61 billion. Vale had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 21.07%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that Vale will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current 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.