Investors Purchase Large Volume of Put Options on Vale (NYSE:VALE)

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 106,051 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 161% compared to the typical volume of 40,636 put options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vale

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Mutual Advisors LLC raised its position in Vale by 23.7% in the fourth quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 23,184 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,000 after purchasing an additional 4,449 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 166.4% during the 4th quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 73,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $653,000 after buying an additional 45,949 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its position in Vale by 39.4% during the 4th quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 349,851 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,103,000 after acquiring an additional 98,899 shares in the last quarter. Octavia Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Vale in the 4th quarter worth approximately $101,000. Finally, Commons Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Vale in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $486,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on VALE shares. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Vale in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley lowered Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Wolfe Research upgraded Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group cut Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $14.00 to $11.50 in a report on Monday, November 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $13.89.

Vale Price Performance

Vale stock opened at $8.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 0.58 and a current ratio of 0.91. Vale has a 12 month low of $8.38 and a 12 month high of $14.47. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $9.34 and its 200-day moving average is $10.29.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.41 by $0.15. Vale had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 21.07%. The firm had revenue of $9.55 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.66 earnings per share. Equities research analysts anticipate that Vale will post 1.92 earnings per share for the current year.

Vale Company Profile

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.