Traders Purchase High Volume of YPF Sociedad Anónima Put Options (NYSE:YPF)

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) saw some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders acquired 7,073 put options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 51% compared to the average volume of 4,695 put options.

Institutional Trading of YPF Sociedad Anónima

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in YPF. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its holdings in YPF Sociedad Anónima by 26.6% during the 4th quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 2,145,571 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $91,208,000 after purchasing an additional 450,935 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new position in YPF Sociedad Anónima in the 4th quarter valued at about $89,009,000. Duquesne Family Office LLC grew its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 292.4% during the fourth quarter. Duquesne Family Office LLC now owns 1,687,716 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $71,745,000 after acquiring an additional 1,257,616 shares in the last quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 41.8% during the fourth quarter. Voloridge Investment Management LLC now owns 1,587,869 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $67,500,000 after acquiring an additional 467,793 shares during the last quarter. Finally, North of South Capital LLP lifted its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 18.3% in the fourth quarter. North of South Capital LLP now owns 1,236,984 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $52,584,000 after acquiring an additional 191,486 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 10.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Citigroup lowered shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $33.00 to $44.00 in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $38.00 price objective (up from $30.00) on shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Bank of America upgraded YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $31.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, December 9th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $59.50 in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, StockNews.com cut YPF Sociedad Anónima from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 18th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $42.02.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Trading Up 4.2 %

YPF stock traded up $1.51 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $37.68. 978,684 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,019,458. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.68. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a fifty-two week low of $16.18 and a fifty-two week high of $47.43. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $37.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.18. The company has a market capitalization of $14.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.05, a PEG ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.89.

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) last issued its earnings results on Friday, March 7th. The oil and gas exploration company reported ($0.74) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.51 by ($1.25). The company had revenue of $4.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.86 billion. YPF Sociedad Anónima had a return on equity of 32.76% and a net margin of 4.15%. Equities research analysts forecast that YPF Sociedad Anónima will post 7.25 EPS for the current fiscal year.

YPF Sociedad Anónima Company Profile

YPF Sociedad Anónima, an energy company, engages in the oil and gas upstream and downstream activities in Argentina. Its upstream operations include the exploration, exploitation, and production of crude oil, and natural gas. The company’s downstream operations include petrochemical production and crude oil refining; transportation and distribution refined and petrochemical products; commercialization of crude oil, petrochemical products, and specialties.