Ero Copper (NYSE:ERO) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Shares of Ero Copper Corp. (NYSE:ERO) gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $38.25, but opened at $35.75. Ero Copper shares last traded at $35.2550, with a volume of 354,278 shares traded.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently issued reports on ERO. Zacks Research cut shares of Ero Copper from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, August 17th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Ero Copper in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. Freedom Broker lowered shares of Ero Copper from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Ero Copper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Ero Copper from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $34.00 in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Ero Copper currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $32.33.

Ero Copper Price Performance

The company’s 50-day moving average price is $31.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $29.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.81, a current ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.50. The firm has a market cap of $3.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.91, a PEG ratio of 0.28 and a beta of 1.27.

Ero Copper (NYSE:ERO) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $284.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $277.64 million. Ero Copper had a net margin of 29.79% and a return on equity of 30.32%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Ero Copper Corp. will post 3.96 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Ero Copper

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of ERO. FIL Ltd raised its position in Ero Copper by 74.1% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 11,670,422 shares of the company’s stock valued at $330,161,000 after purchasing an additional 4,966,427 shares in the last quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of Ero Copper by 602.9% during the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,685,445 shares of the company’s stock worth $47,767,000 after buying an additional 1,445,645 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Ero Copper by 1,614.0% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 1,434,428 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,056,000 after buying an additional 1,350,738 shares in the last quarter. Impala Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Ero Copper during the second quarter worth approximately $31,201,000. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new stake in shares of Ero Copper during the second quarter worth approximately $28,802,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 71.30% of the company’s stock.

Ero Copper Company Profile

Ero Copper Corp. is a Canadian mining company focused on the exploration, development and production of copper and associated mineral products. The company’s operations are located in Brazil, where it produces copper concentrate and may recover gold and other byproducts from its mineral deposits.

Ero Copper’s principal assets include the Caraíba Operations in the state of Bahia and the Tucumã Project in the state of Pará. Caraíba is an established copper mining complex that includes underground and open-pit mines, processing facilities and related infrastructure.