Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Equinox Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX)

Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Monday. Traders bought 31,294 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 369% compared to the average daily volume of 6,670 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Groupe la Francaise boosted its holdings in Equinox Gold by 110.5% in the first quarter. Groupe la Francaise now owns 2,000,000 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,789,000 after purchasing an additional 1,050,000 shares during the period. Janus Henderson Group PLC boosted its holdings in Equinox Gold by 25.6% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 894,799 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,935,000 after purchasing an additional 182,634 shares during the period. Amundi boosted its holdings in Equinox Gold by 14.1% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 4,239,964 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,310,000 after purchasing an additional 523,741 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Equinox Gold by 96.7% in the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,997 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 982 shares during the period. Finally, Maverick Capital Ltd. purchased a new position in Equinox Gold in the first quarter valued at $1,004,000. 38.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently commented on EQX shares. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Equinox Gold from $17.00 to $14.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Zacks Research cut Equinox Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 22nd. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised Equinox Gold from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group raised Equinox Gold from a “buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $14.00.

Equinox Gold Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of EQX traded up $0.05 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $10.84. 10,389,037 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 10,270,494. Equinox Gold has a 52-week low of $5.61 and a 52-week high of $18.96. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $13.73 and a 200 day simple moving average of $14.46. The firm has a market cap of $8.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.53 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.24.

Equinox Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.28 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.29 by ($0.01). Equinox Gold had a return on equity of 10.26% and a net margin of 21.72%.The firm had revenue of $861.59 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $896.94 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned ($0.08) earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 224.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Equinox Gold will post 1.27 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Equinox Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st were given a dividend of $0.015 per share. This represents a $0.06 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 21st. Equinox Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 11.11%.

About Equinox Gold

Equinox Gold Corp is a Canadian gold mining company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. The company focuses on the acquisition, development, and operation of gold properties, with an emphasis on open-pit heap leach mining. Since its inception, Equinox Gold has pursued a strategy of combining assets in established jurisdictions to build a diversified portfolio that balances production and growth, while maintaining rigorous safety and environmental standards.

Equinox Gold’s operating portfolio spans three countries.