Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on New Gold (NYSE:NGD)

New Gold Inc. (NYSE:NGD) saw unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Investors purchased 14,923 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 237% compared to the average daily volume of 4,426 call options.

New Gold Price Performance

Shares of NYSE NGD opened at $2.90 on Wednesday. New Gold has a twelve month low of $1.09 and a twelve month high of $3.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.42, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $2.81 and a two-hundred day moving average of $2.47. The company has a market capitalization of $2.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.73 and a beta of 1.32.

New Gold (NYSE:NGD) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, October 29th. The company reported $0.08 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.04 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $252.00 million during the quarter. New Gold had a net margin of 2.33% and a return on equity of 9.38%. As a group, analysts expect that New Gold will post 0.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On New Gold

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Mackenzie Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of New Gold by 57.3% in the 2nd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 16,328,086 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,229,000 after purchasing an additional 5,948,394 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of New Gold by 5.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 73,884,631 shares of the company’s stock worth $215,743,000 after buying an additional 3,541,882 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets increased its position in shares of New Gold by 9,360.7% in the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 2,692,614 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,755,000 after acquiring an additional 2,664,153 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of New Gold by 13.5% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 20,111,264 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,217,000 after acquiring an additional 2,399,200 shares during the period. Finally, ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC acquired a new stake in shares of New Gold during the third quarter valued at approximately $4,787,000. 42.82% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on NGD shares. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on New Gold from $3.00 to $3.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 10th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of New Gold from $2.75 to $3.25 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of New Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 25th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $3.41.

About New Gold

New Gold Inc, an intermediate gold mining company, develops and operates of mineral properties in Canada. It primarily explores for gold, silver, and copper deposits. The company’s principal operating properties include 100% interest in the Rainy River mine located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada; and New Afton project situated in South-Central British Columbia.