Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Teck Resources Call Options (NYSE:TECK)

Teck Resources Limited (NYSE:TECK) (TSE:TECK) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors purchased 21,648 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 222% compared to the typical volume of 6,728 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Teck Resources

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in Teck Resources by 21.7% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 7,429,981 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $388,507,000 after acquiring an additional 1,326,241 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc grew its position in Teck Resources by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 6,495,880 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $341,337,000 after buying an additional 165,759 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its position in Teck Resources by 10.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,855,836 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $280,655,000 after buying an additional 546,801 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Teck Resources by 49.0% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 4,950,816 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $237,202,000 after buying an additional 1,629,149 shares during the period. Finally, Cibc World Market Inc. raised its position in shares of Teck Resources by 26.1% during the 2nd quarter. Cibc World Market Inc. now owns 4,779,715 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $228,948,000 after buying an additional 989,612 shares in the last quarter. 78.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

TECK has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded shares of Teck Resources from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $50.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, October 25th. UBS Group cut shares of Teck Resources from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on Teck Resources from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. StockNews.com upgraded Teck Resources from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 24th. Finally, Citigroup raised Teck Resources to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Teck Resources has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $65.29.

Teck Resources Price Performance

Shares of TECK opened at $41.18 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.92 and a quick ratio of 2.35. The company has a market cap of $21.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 62.39 and a beta of 1.03. Teck Resources has a 12 month low of $36.50 and a 12 month high of $55.13. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $46.31 and a 200 day moving average price of $47.46.

Teck Resources (NYSE:TECK) (TSE:TECK) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. Teck Resources had a net margin of 3.32% and a return on equity of 6.37%. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.57 EPS. Teck Resources’s quarterly revenue was down 20.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Teck Resources will post 1.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Teck Resources Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.0895 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.87%. Teck Resources’s dividend payout ratio is presently 56.06%.

About Teck Resources

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.