YPF Sociedad Anónima Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:YPF)

YPF Sociedad Anónima (NYSE:YPF) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 7,073 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 51% compared to the typical volume of 4,695 put options.

Institutional Trading of YPF Sociedad Anónima

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of YPF. Advisors Preferred LLC bought a new position in YPF Sociedad Anónima in the fourth quarter worth $44,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 130.3% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,211 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $94,000 after buying an additional 1,251 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 16.1% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,427 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock worth $103,000 after acquiring an additional 336 shares during the period. Verde Servicos Internacionais S.A. bought a new position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima during the 4th quarter worth about $128,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of YPF Sociedad Anónima by 41.3% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 3,829 shares of the oil and gas exploration company’s stock valued at $163,000 after acquiring an additional 1,119 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 10.08% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

YPF Sociedad Anónima Stock Performance

NYSE YPF opened at $37.67 on Wednesday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $37.41 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.28. YPF Sociedad Anónima has a 52-week low of $16.18 and a 52-week high of $47.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.88 and a quick ratio of 0.68. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.03, a P/E/G ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 1.89.

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

About YPF Sociedad Anónima

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.