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

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 77,726 call options on the company. This is an increase of 92% compared to the typical volume of 40,489 call options.

Institutional Trading of Vale

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. GQG Partners LLC acquired a new position in Vale in the 1st quarter valued at about $371,778,000. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in Vale by 1,534.8% during the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 24,810,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $240,908,000 after acquiring an additional 23,292,629 shares during the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd grew its stake in Vale by 165.9% during the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 31,257,989 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $311,955,000 after buying an additional 19,500,437 shares during the period. Mondrian Investment Partners LTD purchased a new position in Vale in the third quarter valued at about $123,532,000. Finally, SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda boosted its holdings in Vale by 303.8% in the 3rd quarter. SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda now owns 11,068,403 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $120,203,000 after acquiring an additional 8,327,112 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VALE has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of Vale to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 17th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Vale from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, November 10th. Morgan Stanley set a $11.50 target price on Vale in a research report on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on Vale from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on Vale from $13.50 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $12.61.

Vale Price Performance

Shares of VALE traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $12.52. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 23,838,372 shares, compared to its average volume of 35,270,641. The company has a current ratio of 1.22, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. Vale has a 1-year low of $8.06 and a 1-year high of $12.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.17 and a beta of 0.82. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.51 and a 200 day simple moving average of $10.44.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.49 by $0.14. Vale had a net margin of 14.23% and a return on equity of 18.14%. The business had revenue of $10.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.39 billion. Analysts predict that Vale will post 1.85 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.