Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) Shares Down 5.5% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Eldorado Gold Corporation (NYSE:EGO) (TSE:ELD) dropped 5.5% during trading on Wednesday. The company traded as low as $33.71 and last traded at $33.5550. Approximately 832,930 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 3,025,791 shares. The stock had previously closed at $35.51.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently commented on EGO shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Eldorado Gold in a research report on Thursday, August 20th. They set a “buy” rating and a $50.00 price objective for the company. Stifel Nicolaus raised shares of Eldorado Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 31st. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised shares of Eldorado Gold from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Sunday, August 9th. Scotiabank decreased their target price on Eldorado Gold from $55.00 to $47.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Eldorado Gold from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, October 31st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Eldorado Gold currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $46.57.

Eldorado Gold Stock Performance

The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $38.08 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $36.63. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.26, a current ratio of 1.42 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

Eldorado Gold (NYSE:EGO) (TSE:ELD) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 28th. The basic materials company reported $0.49 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $511.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $621.90 million. Eldorado Gold had a net margin of 31.67% and a return on equity of 10.31%. On average, analysts forecast that Eldorado Gold Corporation will post 2.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Eldorado Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, December 1st will be issued a $0.0750 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 1st. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. Eldorado Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 10.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of EGO. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Eldorado Gold during the second quarter worth $587,469,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Eldorado Gold by 39.0% in the second quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 18,678,256 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $580,739,000 after purchasing an additional 5,241,277 shares during the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Eldorado Gold in the second quarter worth about $272,580,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of Eldorado Gold by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,113,413 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $175,522,000 after purchasing an additional 54,964 shares during the period. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd increased its holdings in Eldorado Gold by 5.1% in the third quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 3,303,287 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $127,246,000 after buying an additional 158,798 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 69.58% of the company’s stock.

About Eldorado Gold

Eldorado Gold Corporation is a Canadian gold mining company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia. It explores for, develops and operates mineral properties, with gold as its primary product and silver and base metals also produced at some of its mines. The company’s portfolio spans Canada, Greece and Turkey. Its operations include the Lamaque Complex in Quebec, the Kisladag and Efemcukuru mines in Turkey, and the Olympias mine in Greece. Eldorado is also developing the Skouries copper-gold project in Greece.