Kinross Gold Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:KGC)

Kinross Gold Co. (NYSE:KGC) (TSE:K) was the target of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Traders purchased 14,125 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 101% compared to the typical daily volume of 7,035 call options.

Institutional Trading of Kinross Gold

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in KGC. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Kinross Gold by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 44,404,283 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $202,484,000 after buying an additional 463,035 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in shares of Kinross Gold by 23.5% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 947,037 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $5,707,000 after purchasing an additional 179,933 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Kinross Gold by 975.2% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 555,458 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,543,000 after buying an additional 503,799 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. grew its position in shares of Kinross Gold by 4.6% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 2,846,537 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $17,285,000 after buying an additional 124,055 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Kinross Gold by 24.9% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 8,046,094 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $36,680,000 after buying an additional 1,603,951 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 63.69% of the company’s stock.

Kinross Gold Price Performance

KGC opened at $7.10 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $6.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $5.74. Kinross Gold has a 52-week low of $4.32 and a 52-week high of $7.20. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 2.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The company has a market cap of $8.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.09 and a beta of 1.14.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) (TSE:K) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 7th. The mining company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.06 by $0.04. Kinross Gold had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 9.82%. The company had revenue of $1.08 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.07 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts expect that Kinross Gold will post 0.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Kinross Gold Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 6th were issued a $0.03 dividend. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. Kinross Gold’s dividend payout ratio is presently 35.29%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have issued reports on KGC shares. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price target on Kinross Gold from $5.00 to $6.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 22nd. CIBC boosted their target price on shares of Kinross Gold from $7.00 to $8.15 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. National Bank Financial reaffirmed an “outperform overweight” rating on shares of Kinross Gold in a research note on Monday, April 8th. TheStreet lowered shares of Kinross Gold from a “b” rating to a “c+” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Kinross Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $6.44.

Kinross Gold Company Profile

Kinross Gold Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties principally in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Canada, and Mauritania. The company operates the Fort Knox mine and the Manh Choh project in Alaska, as well as the Round Mountain and the Bald Mountain mines in Nevada, the United States; the Paracatu mine in Brazil; the La Coipa and the Lobo-Marte project in Chile; the Tasiast mine in Mauritania; and the Great Bear project in Canada.