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

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 147,090 put options on the company. This represents an increase of 59% compared to the typical daily volume of 92,775 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VALE. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Vale by 5.4% during the 3rd quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 17,350 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $188,000 after buying an additional 885 shares during the last quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC increased its holdings in Vale by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC now owns 29,114 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $316,000 after acquiring an additional 982 shares in the last quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC raised its position in Vale by 60.0% during the third quarter. Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 2,748 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 1,030 shares during the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Vale by 8.5% in the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 13,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $135,000 after purchasing an additional 1,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Fullcircle Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of Vale by 8.7% in the third quarter. Fullcircle Wealth LLC now owns 13,800 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $165,000 after purchasing an additional 1,100 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 21.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VALE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Vale from $13.80 to $14.50 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, November 10th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Vale in a report on Monday, December 15th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Vale from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $14.20 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Zacks Research cut Vale from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th. Finally, UBS Group increased their target price on Vale from $11.00 to $12.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, December 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Vale currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.04.

Vale Stock Down 2.2%

VALE stock opened at $12.94 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.49. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $12.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.01. Vale has a 52 week low of $8.06 and a 52 week high of $13.62. The company has a market cap of $58.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.95 and a beta of 0.57.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last posted 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. The company had revenue of $10.42 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.39 billion. Vale had a net margin of 14.69% and a return on equity of 18.60%. On average, research analysts expect that Vale will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Vale Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a special dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 14th. Investors of record on Friday, December 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2331 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 12th. Vale’s payout ratio is currently 69.23%.

Vale Company Profile

Vale SA is a Brazilian multinational mining company and one of the world’s largest producers of iron ore and iron ore pellets. In addition to iron ore, the company produces and sells a range of bulk commodities and metals, including nickel, copper, coal, manganese, ferroalloys and cobalt, and it participates in the fertilizer inputs market. Vale also operates extensive logistics assets — including rail, port and maritime logistics — that support its mining and export activities and provide services to third parties in some regions.

Headquartered in Brazil, Vale maintains a global operational footprint with mining, processing and shipping activities across the Americas, Africa, Asia and Oceania.