Eldorado Gold Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:EGO)

Eldorado Gold Corporation (NYSE:EGO) (TSE:ELD) saw unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders purchased 2,739 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 48% compared to the average daily volume of 1,851 call options.

Eldorado Gold Stock Down 8.9%

NYSE:EGO traded down $4.25 on Friday, reaching $43.38. The stock had a trading volume of 2,202,563 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,549,267. The company has a 50-day moving average of $40.53 and a 200 day moving average of $31.73. The company has a current ratio of 2.79, a quick ratio of 2.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The stock has a market cap of $8.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.21 and a beta of 0.51. Eldorado Gold has a 12-month low of $13.29 and a 12-month high of $51.16.

Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) (TSE:ELD) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.63 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.64 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $575.14 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $500.42 million. Eldorado Gold had a return on equity of 8.89% and a net margin of 22.15%. On average, research analysts predict that Eldorado Gold will post 1.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Eldorado Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 27th will be given a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 27th.

Institutional Trading of Eldorado Gold

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in Eldorado Gold by 33.9% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 16,499,858 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $476,679,000 after acquiring an additional 4,173,963 shares during the last quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 35.2% in the 4th quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd now owns 9,640,407 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $346,283,000 after purchasing an additional 2,512,168 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Eldorado Gold by 2.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,387,901 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $242,226,000 after purchasing an additional 209,947 shares during the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC lifted its position in shares of Eldorado Gold by 2.3% during the third quarter. Jennison Associates LLC now owns 8,173,003 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $236,118,000 after purchasing an additional 182,780 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in Eldorado Gold by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,546,074 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $199,274,000 after purchasing an additional 132,170 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

EGO has been the topic of a number of research reports. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $54.00 target price on shares of Eldorado Gold in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Bank of America raised their price objective on Eldorado Gold from $28.00 to $29.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Scotiabank upgraded Eldorado Gold from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Eldorado Gold in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada downgraded Eldorado Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $48.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Tuesday. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Eldorado Gold has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $38.20.

Eldorado Gold Company Profile

Eldorado Gold Corporation is a Canada‐based gold producer engaged in the acquisition, exploration, development and operation of mineral properties. The company’s core focus is on gold, silver and select base metals, with an emphasis on advancing projects through feasibility and into production. Eldorado Gold maintains a diversified portfolio of both producing mines and advanced‐stage development projects.

Operationally, Eldorado Gold manages multiple gold mining operations across Turkey, Canada and Greece.