Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) Short Interest Update

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE:AEM) (TSE:AEM) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 5,466,401 shares, a growth of 24.7% from the March 15th total of 4,382,180 shares. Currently, 1.1% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 3,636,618 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.5 days.

Agnico Eagle Mines Stock Performance

AEM traded up $5.30 on Friday, hitting $220.23. 2,099,159 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,587,604. Agnico Eagle Mines has a 52 week low of $103.38 and a 52 week high of $255.24. The company has a current ratio of 2.02, a quick ratio of 1.33 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $110.34 billion, a PE ratio of 24.80 and a beta of 0.71. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $214.87 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $189.87.

Agnico Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) (TSE:AEM) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 12th. The mining company reported $2.69 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.56 by $0.13. Agnico Eagle Mines had a return on equity of 18.09% and a net margin of 37.47%.The firm had revenue of $3.53 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.40 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.26 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 60.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Agnico Eagle Mines will post 4.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Agnico Eagle Mines Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Agnico Eagle Mines’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 2nd. Agnico Eagle Mines’s dividend payout ratio is presently 20.27%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Agnico Eagle Mines

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Brighton Jones LLC boosted its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 11.5% during the fourth quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 3,216 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $252,000 after purchasing an additional 331 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 36.4% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 19,829 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,150,000 after purchasing an additional 5,293 shares in the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC boosted its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 57.2% during the second quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,188 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 1,160 shares in the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers boosted its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 8.0% during the second quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 1,810 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $215,000 after purchasing an additional 134 shares in the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Agnico Eagle Mines by 25.2% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 929 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $110,000 after purchasing an additional 187 shares in the last quarter. 68.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on AEM shares. Zacks Research lowered Agnico Eagle Mines from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 30th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on Agnico Eagle Mines from $198.00 to $256.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 15th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce set a $296.00 price objective on Agnico Eagle Mines and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Wall Street Zen lowered Agnico Eagle Mines from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, April 11th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded Agnico Eagle Mines from a “buy (b+)” rating to a “buy (a-)” rating in a research note on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $237.30.

Agnico Eagle Mines Company Profile

Agnico Eagle Mines Limited (NYSE: AEM) is a Canadian-based senior gold producer headquartered in Toronto, Ontario. The company is principally engaged in the exploration, development, production and reclamation of gold-bearing properties. Agnico Eagle pursues both greenfield and brownfield exploration to expand its resource base and operates a portfolio of producing mines and development projects to generate long-life gold production.

Its core business activities span the full mining lifecycle: grassroots and advanced-stage exploration, prefeasibility and feasibility studies, mine construction, underground and open-pit mining, ore processing and metal recovery, and post-mining reclamation and closure.