Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras (NYSE:PBR)

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 1,509,038 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 2,274% compared to the typical daily volume of 63,554 call options.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

PBR has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Morgan Stanley lowered shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $18.00 in a report on Monday, March 11th. Bank of America lowered Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $16.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, March 8th. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras from $17.20 to $17.40 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, HSBC raised shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $18.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.76.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE PBR opened at $17.05 on Friday. Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras has a 52-week low of $10.01 and a 52-week high of $17.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a current ratio of 0.96. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $15.96 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.88.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras (NYSE:PBR) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, March 8th. The oil and gas exploration company reported $1.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.12 by $0.15. Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras had a net margin of 24.30% and a return on equity of 34.44%. The company had revenue of $27.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $26.45 billion. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras will post 3.51 EPS for the current year.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 27th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 29th will be issued a $0.2084 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 26th. This represents a $0.83 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.89%. Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 12.83%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras during the 4th quarter worth approximately $218,758,000. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC raised its holdings in shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 6,811,783 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $108,784,000 after acquiring an additional 1,145,021 shares during the period. Artemis Investment Management LLP raised its holdings in shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras by 27.7% during the first quarter. Artemis Investment Management LLP now owns 6,278,919 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $95,452,000 after acquiring an additional 1,362,108 shares during the period. CI Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras by 4.2% during the third quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 4,378,375 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $65,632,000 after acquiring an additional 175,038 shares during the period. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in shares of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras during the third quarter worth $62,049,000.

Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. – Petrobras Company Profile

Petróleo Brasileiro SA – Petrobras explores, produces, and sells oil and gas in Brazil and internationally. The company operates through Exploration and Production; Refining, Transportation and Marketing; and Gas and Power. It also engages in prospecting, drilling, refining, processing, trading, and transporting crude oil from producing onshore and offshore oil fields, and shale or other rocks, as well as oil products, natural gas, and other liquid hydrocarbons.