Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Geopark Call Options (NYSE:GPRK)

Geopark Ltd (NYSE:GPRK) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 31,346 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 15,893% compared to the typical daily volume of 196 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on GPRK shares. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Geopark in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Santander assumed coverage on shares of Geopark in a research report on Friday, August 29th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Geopark from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Institutional Trading of Geopark

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Jump Financial LLC boosted its stake in Geopark by 124.0% during the 1st quarter. Jump Financial LLC now owns 114,839 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $928,000 after purchasing an additional 63,567 shares during the last quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. grew its holdings in shares of Geopark by 326.7% during the first quarter. Banco BTG Pactual S.A. now owns 64,000 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $517,000 after buying an additional 49,000 shares in the last quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Geopark during the first quarter worth $99,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Geopark by 94.2% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 365,825 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock worth $2,956,000 after buying an additional 177,496 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Graham Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in Geopark by 143.4% during the 1st quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 109,830 shares of the oil and gas company’s stock valued at $887,000 after acquiring an additional 64,710 shares in the last quarter. 68.21% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Geopark Stock Up 24.2%

Shares of NYSE GPRK opened at $8.20 on Friday. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $6.47 and its 200-day simple moving average is $6.68. Geopark has a 52-week low of $5.66 and a 52-week high of $11.72. The firm has a market cap of $419.99 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.87 and a beta of 0.76. The company has a quick ratio of 2.42, a current ratio of 2.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.92.

Geopark (NYSE:GPRK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The oil and gas company reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.12. Geopark had a return on equity of 35.65% and a net margin of 7.70%.The company had revenue of $119.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $123.00 million. Equities analysts predict that Geopark will post 1.97 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Geopark Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 19th were paid a $0.147 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, August 19th. This represents a $0.59 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 7.2%. Geopark’s payout ratio is currently 71.08%.

Geopark Company Profile

GeoPark Limited operates as an oil and natural gas exploration and production company primarily in Chile, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador, and other Latin American countries. It engages in the exploration, development, and production of oil and gas reserves. The company was formerly known as GeoPark Holdings Limited and changed its name to GeoPark Limited in July 2013.