Vale Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:VALE)

Vale S.A. (NYSE:VALE) saw some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors bought 329,774 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 1,360% compared to the typical daily volume of 22,588 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Vale

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position in Vale by 2,239.6% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 41,596,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $541,996,000 after purchasing an additional 39,818,066 shares during the period. Capital World Investors boosted its stake in Vale by 58.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 89,322,261 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,163,896,000 after buying an additional 32,864,929 shares in the last quarter. GQG Partners LLC grew its position in Vale by 42.4% in the fourth quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 65,132,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $848,677,000 after acquiring an additional 19,397,396 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in Vale by 15,202.2% during the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 15,663,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $249,209,000 after acquiring an additional 15,561,279 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Vale by 119.9% during the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 21,837,416 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $347,433,000 after acquiring an additional 11,905,247 shares in the last quarter. 21.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VALE has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Vale from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, July 18th. Scotiabank dropped their target price on shares of Vale from $19.00 to $16.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada reissued a “sector perform” rating on shares of Vale in a research report on Monday, June 15th. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating and set a $16.50 price target on shares of Vale in a report on Tuesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group downgraded Vale from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $18.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Monday, July 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $16.00.

Vale Stock Performance

Shares of Vale stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $14.40. The company had a trading volume of 18,702,647 shares, compared to its average volume of 29,533,998. Vale has a 1-year low of $9.67 and a 1-year high of $17.94. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.94 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $15.84. The stock has a market cap of $65.36 billion, a PE ratio of 29.39 and a beta of 0.47. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Vale (NYSE:VALE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The basic materials company reported $0.36 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $10.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.47 billion. Vale had a net margin of 5.11% and a return on equity of 19.87%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Vale will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Vale Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a special dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 10th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 13th will be given a dividend of $0.3088 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 13th. Vale’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 134.69%.

About Vale

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.