Teck Resources Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:TECK)

Teck Resources Limited (NYSE:TECK) (TSE:TECK) saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders purchased 11,967 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 83% compared to the average volume of 6,549 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teck Resources

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Quent Capital LLC bought a new stake in Teck Resources in the 1st quarter valued at $119,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Teck Resources by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,721,130 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $765,493,000 after purchasing an additional 290,034 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Teck Resources by 12.1% in the 1st quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC now owns 5,896 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $270,000 after buying an additional 637 shares in the last quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its position in shares of Teck Resources by 91.2% during the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 6,500 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $298,000 after buying an additional 3,100 shares during the period. Finally, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its stake in Teck Resources by 27.0% during the first quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,614,436 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $73,966,000 after acquiring an additional 343,626 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 78.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

TECK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Paradigm Capital upgraded shares of Teck Resources to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 26th. StockNews.com raised Teck Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. UBS Group lowered Teck Resources from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of Teck Resources from $57.00 to $55.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, October 25th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Teck Resources from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.29.

Teck Resources Stock Performance

TECK traded down $0.52 during trading on Friday, hitting $46.69. The stock had a trading volume of 616,712 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,380,709. The company has a current ratio of 2.92, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16. Teck Resources has a 12 month low of $35.25 and a 12 month high of $55.13. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.89 and a 200-day simple moving average of $48.60. The firm has a market cap of $23.49 billion, a PE ratio of 71.26 and a beta of 1.04.

Teck Resources (NYSE:TECK) (TSE:TECK) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.24. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. Teck Resources had a return on equity of 6.37% and a net margin of 3.32%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.57 EPS. Analysts expect that Teck Resources will post 1.86 EPS for the current year.

Teck Resources Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.0895 per share. This represents a $0.36 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.77%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Teck Resources’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 56.06%.

Teck Resources Company Profile

Teck Resources Limited engages in exploring for, acquiring, developing, and producing natural resources in Asia, Europe, and North America. The company operates through Steelmaking Coal, Copper, Zinc, and Energy segments. Its principal products include copper, zinc, steelmaking coal, and blended bitumen.