Equinox Gold Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX)

Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Investors acquired 36,593 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 198% compared to the average daily volume of 12,282 call options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Equinox Gold

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Rathbones Group PLC lifted its holdings in Equinox Gold by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 108,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $743,000 after purchasing an additional 1,825 shares in the last quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Equinox Gold by 5.6% during the second quarter. Kohmann Bosshard Financial Services LLC now owns 38,000 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 2,000 shares during the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its position in shares of Equinox Gold by 13.2% in the second quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 17,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $103,000 after purchasing an additional 2,091 shares during the period. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio lifted its position in Equinox Gold by 1.0% during the third quarter. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio now owns 233,610 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,625,000 after buying an additional 2,313 shares during the period. Finally, Creative Planning boosted its stake in Equinox Gold by 8.3% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 37,314 shares of the company’s stock worth $419,000 after buying an additional 2,863 shares during the last quarter. 38.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

EQX has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada raised Equinox Gold from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 10th. Stifel Nicolaus began coverage on shares of Equinox Gold in a report on Tuesday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating for the company. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Equinox Gold in a research report on Friday, September 5th. Scotiabank upgraded shares of Equinox Gold from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th. Finally, Stifel Canada upgraded Equinox Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $26.00.

Equinox Gold Stock Up 3.4%

EQX stock traded up $0.49 during trading on Thursday, hitting $14.87. 5,193,802 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,741,193. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 296.76 and a beta of 1.25. Equinox Gold has a 52-week low of $4.95 and a 52-week high of $15.07. The company has a current ratio of 1.07, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $12.20 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $9.18.

Equinox Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $819.01 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $607.81 million. Equinox Gold had a return on equity of 5.57% and a net margin of 2.71%.Equinox Gold’s revenue for the quarter was up 91.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Equinox Gold will post 0.85 EPS for the current year.

Equinox Gold Company Profile

Equinox Gold Corp. engages in the exploration, acquisition, development, and operation of mineral properties in the Americas. It explores gold and silver deposits. It holds interest in properties in California located in the United States; Guerrero State located in Mexico; Maranhão, Bahia, and Mina Gerais state located in Brazil; and Ontario, Canada.