Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on BRF (NYSE:BRFS)

Brf S.A. (NYSE:BRFS) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Investors purchased 2,132 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 643% compared to the typical volume of 287 call options.

BRF Stock Performance

Shares of BRFS stock traded up $0.02 on Wednesday, reaching $4.47. The stock had a trading volume of 2,398,113 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,936,116. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.45 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.20. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $4.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $3.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.56, a P/E/G ratio of 0.25 and a beta of 1.94. BRF has a 12 month low of $1.95 and a 12 month high of $4.76.

BRF (NYSE:BRFS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 15th. The company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.07 by $0.04. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.55 billion. BRF had a net margin of 3.61% and a return on equity of 11.51%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.10) EPS. On average, research analysts expect that BRF will post 0.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its position in shares of BRF by 56.5% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 5,692,814 shares of the company’s stock worth $23,170,000 after purchasing an additional 2,056,054 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP boosted its position in shares of BRF by 534.6% during the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 4,623,075 shares of the company’s stock worth $18,816,000 after acquiring an additional 3,894,533 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd boosted its position in shares of BRF by 13.9% during the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 1,776,249 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,229,000 after acquiring an additional 216,693 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in shares of BRF by 5.7% during the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 837,401 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,408,000 after acquiring an additional 45,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cloverfields Capital Group LP boosted its position in shares of BRF by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Cloverfields Capital Group LP now owns 564,642 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,841,000 after acquiring an additional 4,234 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 4.76% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BRFS has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of BRF from $4.50 to $5.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 16th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of BRF from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of BRF from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 21st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, BRF currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $10.70.

About BRF

BRF SA raises, produces, and slaughters poultry and pork for processing, production, and sale of fresh meat, processed products, pasta, margarine, pet food, and other products. The company provides frozen whole and cut chicken, frozen pork, and turkey, and halal products for Islamic markets; processed foods, such as marinated, frozen, seasoned whole, and cut chicken, roosters, sausages, ham products, bologna, frankfurters, salamis, bacons, cold meats, and other smoked products; and hamburgers, steaks, breaded meat products, kibbeh, and meatballs, as well as chicken sausages, hot dogs, and chicken bologna.