An Australian-based company operating in Brazil has come under fire by the attorney general of Brazil after a dam burst at a BHP Billiton iron ore facility. However, BHP Billiton Ltd  (BHP) unequivocally maintained that it was not a guarantor to the Australian company, Samarco. Nonetheless, BHP Billiton offered assurances that it will do what is required in tandem with Vale SA during the recovery efforts estimated by the Brazilian government at $4.9 billion. These fresh concerns have hit home hard, especially in light of the recent plunge in the price of nickel and iron ore – the chief products of BHP Billiton.

If you trade the news, BHP Billiton’s association was this disaster will naturally lend itself towards put options in the immediate aftermath, and in the event of a settlement being decided.

The current price of BHP Billiton is $21.87. At this price, BHP Billiton has a market capitalisation of $57.15 billion and a dividend of $1.24. The dividend yield is 11.50% with a price-earnings ratio of 30.69 and an earnings per share of 0.72. The 52-week trading range on the low end is $18.46 and the 52-week trading range on the high end is $52.98.

BHP Billiton has a year-to-date performance of -19.45%, a 3-month performance of -41.96% and a 1-year performance of -54.40%. The 3-year performance of the stock is -73.17%. In terms of earnings per share, 1 year ago BHP had a 0.72 earnings per share, 2-years ago the earnings per share was 5.20 and 3-years ago the earnings per share was 4.09.

Now let’s look at some of the things that you don’t usually pick up from casual analysis of stocks like BHP Billiton:

The existing market capitalisation of the company reflects the revenues, capital and asset allocations under consideration. What is particularly interesting to point out is that BHP Billiton appears to be less volatile and seemingly more attractive than many other companies of a lesser volume. The price-earnings ratio is a super indicator of the affordability of a stock. In other words investors can quickly gauge whether there is value in BHP Billiton at this point or not.