Macquarie Downgrades Newmont (NYSE:NEM) to Hold

Newmont (NYSE:NEM) was downgraded by investment analysts at Macquarie from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Raymond James Financial raised their target price on shares of Newmont from $67.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Newmont from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 28th. Stifel Canada upgraded shares of Newmont to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 8th. CIBC set a $74.00 price objective on shares of Newmont and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Newmont from $52.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 4th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.15.

Newmont Stock Down 0.6%

Newmont stock opened at $75.43 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $82.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.54, a PEG ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 0.34. The company has a current ratio of 2.23, a quick ratio of 1.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.23. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $64.91 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $55.55. Newmont has a 52 week low of $36.86 and a 52 week high of $76.52.

Newmont (NYSE:NEM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, July 24th. The basic materials company reported $1.43 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.95 by $0.48. The firm had revenue of $5.32 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.70 billion. Newmont had a net margin of 30.50% and a return on equity of 17.86%. Newmont’s quarterly revenue was up 20.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.72 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Newmont will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Newmont

In related news, EVP Peter Toth sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $190,980.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 58,736 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,739,133.76. This trade represents a 4.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce R. Brook sold 2,077 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $63.66, for a total transaction of $132,221.82. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 41,026 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,611,715.16. The trade was a 4.82% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 17,169 shares of company stock valued at $1,098,636. 0.05% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Newmont

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NEM. Norges Bank bought a new position in Newmont during the second quarter valued at approximately $919,170,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Newmont during the first quarter valued at approximately $306,507,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Newmont by 4,203.5% during the first quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 5,376,551 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $259,580,000 after purchasing an additional 5,251,616 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in shares of Newmont by 45.0% in the second quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,587,917 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $908,152,000 after purchasing an additional 4,839,447 shares during the period. Finally, Boston Partners raised its position in shares of Newmont by 4,090.7% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 4,643,057 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $272,558,000 after purchasing an additional 4,532,263 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 68.85% of the company’s stock.

About Newmont

Newmont Corporation engages in the production and exploration of gold. It also explores for copper, silver, zinc, and lead. The company has operations and/or assets in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Peru, Suriname, Argentina, Chile, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Fiji, and Ghana.