Kinross Gold Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:KGC)

Kinross Gold Co. (NYSE:KGC - Get Free Report) TSE: K saw some unusual options trading on Friday. Investors purchased 11,920 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 67% compared to the typical daily volume of 7,143 call options.

Institutional Trading of Kinross Gold

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS increased its stake in Kinross Gold by 48.8% in the 1st quarter. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Public School Empls Retrmt SYS now owns 114,607 shares of the mining company's stock worth $674,000 after acquiring an additional 37,610 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Kinross Gold by 11.7% in the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,122,543 shares of the mining company's stock worth $18,361,000 after acquiring an additional 325,896 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in Kinross Gold by 72.1% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 27,464 shares of the mining company's stock worth $161,000 after acquiring an additional 11,505 shares during the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board increased its stake in Kinross Gold by 39.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 1,445,200 shares of the mining company's stock worth $8,493,000 after acquiring an additional 410,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH increased its stake in Kinross Gold by 10.0% in the 1st quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 5,377,889 shares of the mining company's stock worth $31,603,000 after acquiring an additional 487,613 shares during the last quarter. 63.69% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Kinross Gold Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE KGC traded down $0.10 during trading on Friday, reaching $6.38. 27,385,391 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,952,208. Kinross Gold has a 52-week low of $4.32 and a 52-week high of $6.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 2.63 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The company has a 50-day moving average of $5.56 and a 200-day moving average of $5.51. The stock has a market capitalization of $7.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.10 and a beta of 1.15.

Kinross Gold (NYSE:KGC - Get Free Report) TSE: K last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 15th. The mining company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.02. Kinross Gold had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 9.82%. The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.04 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.09 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Kinross Gold will post 0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Kinross Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 6th were paid a dividend of $0.03 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 5th. This represents a $0.12 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.88%. Kinross Gold's payout ratio is 35.29%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have weighed in on KGC shares. StockNews.com raised Kinross Gold from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 2nd. TheStreet cut Kinross Gold from a "b" rating to a "c+" rating in a research report on Friday, February 16th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Kinross Gold in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a "hold" rating and a $5.00 price objective on the stock. CIBC boosted their price objective on Kinross Gold from $7.00 to $8.15 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, National Bank Financial reissued an "outperform overweight" rating on shares of Kinross Gold in a research report on Monday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $6.28.

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.