Short Interest in Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) Expands By 29.3%

Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,930,000 shares, a growth of 29.3% from the March 31st total of 12,320,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 4,530,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.5 days.

Institutional Trading of Gold Fields

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in shares of Gold Fields in the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its stake in Gold Fields by 133.1% in the fourth quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 4,673 shares of the company’s stock worth $68,000 after purchasing an additional 2,668 shares during the last quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Gold Fields by 51.7% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 4,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 1,662 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of Gold Fields during the third quarter valued at about $100,000. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Gold Fields in the 3rd quarter valued at about $116,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.02% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of Gold Fields from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Scotiabank decreased their price target on shares of Gold Fields from $15.50 to $15.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, February 26th. UBS Group lowered Gold Fields from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lowered Gold Fields from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $12.00 in a research note on Friday, February 2nd. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

Gold Fields Stock Up 2.0 %

NYSE GFI opened at $17.89 on Tuesday. Gold Fields has a 52-week low of $10.31 and a 52-week high of $18.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $15.67 and a 200-day moving average of $14.55. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.10. On average, research analysts forecast that Gold Fields will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gold Fields Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.1717 per share. This represents a dividend yield of 2.5%. This is a boost from Gold Fields’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th.

Gold Fields Company Profile

Gold Fields Limited operates as a gold producer with reserves and resources in Chile, South Africa, Ghana, Canada, Australia, and Peru. It also explores for copper and silver deposits. The company was founded in 1887 and is based in Sandton, South Africa.