Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO)

Eldorado Gold Co. (NYSE:EGO - Get Free Report) TSE: ELD was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Investors purchased 12,889 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 718% compared to the average volume of 1,575 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Eldorado Gold

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in EGO. Helikon Investments Ltd raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 1.7% during the third quarter. Helikon Investments Ltd now owns 29,438,478 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $262,297,000 after acquiring an additional 501,488 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 3.3% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 22,145,722 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $287,232,000 after acquiring an additional 699,111 shares during the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 20.2% during the fourth quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 12,708,184 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $164,825,000 after acquiring an additional 2,136,824 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 1.4% during the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 10,321,583 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $115,706,000 after acquiring an additional 141,298 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,774,270 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $87,862,000 after acquiring an additional 79,670 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on EGO shares. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of Eldorado Gold in a report on Friday, January 26th. National Bank Financial reaffirmed an "outperform spec overweight" rating on shares of Eldorado Gold in a report on Wednesday, January 3rd. TD Securities cut their price target on shares of Eldorado Gold from $14.50 to $13.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 26th. CIBC upped their price target on shares of Eldorado Gold from $16.50 to $18.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Stifel Canada downgraded shares of Eldorado Gold from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, January 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $14.00.

Eldorado Gold Price Performance

NYSE:EGO traded up $0.38 on Friday, hitting $15.12. The company had a trading volume of 3,308,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,684,425. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.52 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a current ratio of 3.39, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $12.37 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.70. Eldorado Gold has a 52 week low of $8.30 and a 52 week high of $15.18.

Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO - Get Free Report) TSE: ELD last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $306.90 million during the quarter. Eldorado Gold had a net margin of 10.54% and a return on equity of 3.56%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Eldorado Gold will post 0.67 earnings per share for the current year.

Eldorado Gold Company Profile

Eldorado Gold Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the mining, exploration, development, and sale of mineral products primarily in Turkey, Canada, Greece, and Romania. The company primarily produces gold, as well as silver, lead, and zinc. It holds a 100% interest in the Kisladag and Efemçukuru mines located in Turkey; Lamaque complex located in Canada; and Olympias, Stratoni, Skouries, Perama Hill, and Sapes gold mines located in Greece, as well as the 80.5% interest in Certej development projects located in Romania.