Gold Fields Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:GFI)

Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Traders acquired 6,817 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 77% compared to the typical volume of 3,853 call options.

Gold Fields Stock Performance

Shares of GFI stock traded down $0.02 on Friday, reaching $17.75. 2,438,959 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 4,612,377. The company has a 50-day moving average of $15.13 and a 200-day moving average of $14.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 0.70. Gold Fields has a one year low of $10.31 and a one year high of $18.97.

Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.10. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Gold Fields will post 1.15 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Gold Fields Increases Dividend

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Gold Fields

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in GFI. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in Gold Fields by 15.1% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 46,158,985 shares of the company’s stock valued at $501,287,000 after acquiring an additional 6,053,995 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Gold Fields by 6,833.8% in the 3rd quarter. Balyasny Asset Management LLC now owns 3,466,882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,047,000 after acquiring an additional 3,416,882 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Gold Fields by 118.8% in the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,107,356 shares of the company’s stock valued at $78,960,000 after buying an additional 2,772,894 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. increased its stake in Gold Fields by 10.2% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,589,382 shares of the company’s stock valued at $395,611,000 after buying an additional 2,368,601 shares during the last quarter. Finally, RWC Asset Advisors US LLC increased its stake in Gold Fields by 19.3% in the 4th quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 12,810,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,243,000 after buying an additional 2,070,427 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 26.02% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GFI has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets downgraded Gold Fields from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $14.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, February 2nd. UBS Group cut shares of Gold Fields from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 10th. StockNews.com raised shares of Gold Fields from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Scotiabank cut 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 research report on Monday, February 26th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $13.67.

About Gold Fields

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.