Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC)

Kinross Gold Co. (NYSE:KGC) (TSE:K) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors bought 12,664 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 52% compared to the typical daily volume of 8,349 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Kinross Gold

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in shares of Kinross Gold by 62.2% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 116,323,261 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,078,330,000 after buying an additional 44,610,091 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Kinross Gold by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 47,365,206 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $439,881,000 after buying an additional 763,248 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC lifted its stake in shares of Kinross Gold by 10.9% in the fourth quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 32,862,230 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $304,633,000 after buying an additional 3,224,455 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Kinross Gold in the fourth quarter worth approximately $280,697,000. Finally, Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of Kinross Gold by 10.5% in the fourth quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 14,665,537 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $136,028,000 after buying an additional 1,398,225 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 63.69% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently commented on KGC shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Kinross Gold from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday. CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Kinross Gold from $13.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $11.63.

Kinross Gold Price Performance

Shares of NYSE KGC opened at $11.63 on Friday. Kinross Gold has a 1 year low of $5.44 and a 1 year high of $12.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 0.83. The company’s 50-day moving average is $11.01 and its 200 day moving average is $10.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.10, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.29.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC) (TSE:K) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The mining company reported $0.20 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.23 by ($0.03). Kinross Gold had a return on equity of 12.65% and a net margin of 18.43%. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Kinross Gold will post 0.81 earnings per share for the current year.

Kinross Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. This represents a $0.12 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 5th. Kinross Gold’s payout ratio is currently 15.58%.

About Kinross Gold

Kinross Gold Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the acquisition, exploration, and development of gold properties principally in the United States, Brazil, Chile, Canada, and Mauritania. The company operates the Fort Knox mine and the Manh Choh project in Alaska, as well as the Round Mountain and the Bald Mountain mines in Nevada, the United States; the Paracatu mine in Brazil; the La Coipa and the Lobo-Marte project in Chile; the Tasiast mine in Mauritania; and the Great Bear project in Canada.