Vale Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:VALE)

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders bought 99,798 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 137% compared to the average volume of 42,096 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Vale

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Caprock Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Vale during the 4th quarter valued at $1,336,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 106.0% during the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 9,721,066 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $86,226,000 after purchasing an additional 5,001,228 shares in the last quarter. R Squared Ltd bought a new position in shares of Vale during the 4th quarter valued at $41,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Vale by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 204,347 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,813,000 after purchasing an additional 18,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA bought a new position in shares of Vale during the 4th quarter valued at $95,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Vale Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:VALE opened at $8.90 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $9.24 and a two-hundred day moving average of $10.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 0.92. Vale has a 12-month low of $8.38 and a 12-month 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.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.41 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $9.55 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.61 billion. Vale had a net margin of 22.59% and a return on equity of 21.07%. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.66 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that Vale will post 1.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on VALE. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $11.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Vale from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $14.50 to $11.30 in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group lowered shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $14.00 to $11.50 in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Wolfe Research upgraded shares of Vale from an “underperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Vale from $14.00 to $13.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Vale has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.89.

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.