Fortuna Silver Mines Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:FSM)

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) (TSE:FVI) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 8,951 call options on the company. This is an increase of 339% compared to the average volume of 2,037 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

FSM has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of Fortuna Silver Mines from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. CIBC downgraded shares of Fortuna Silver Mines from a “neutral” rating to a “sector underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of Fortuna Silver Mines from $6.75 to $6.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th.

Fortuna Silver Mines Stock Performance

Shares of FSM stock opened at $4.91 on Friday. Fortuna Silver Mines has a one year low of $3.16 and a one year high of $6.36. The company’s 50-day moving average is $4.64 and its 200 day moving average is $4.71. The company has a market capitalization of $1.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 61.32 and a beta of 1.56. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a current ratio of 1.94.

Fortuna Silver Mines (NYSE:FSM) (TSE:FVI) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.20 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $302.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $301.65 million. Fortuna Silver Mines had a net margin of 2.45% and a return on equity of 10.08%. Sell-side analysts expect that Fortuna Silver Mines will post 0.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortuna Silver Mines

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in Fortuna Silver Mines by 10.5% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 8,402,119 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $36,043,000 after acquiring an additional 796,364 shares during the period. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. lifted its stake in Fortuna Silver Mines by 17.1% during the 4th quarter. D. E. Shaw & Co. Inc. now owns 8,340,195 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $35,779,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219,864 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in Fortuna Silver Mines by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 7,542,803 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $32,359,000 after acquiring an additional 2,165,430 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its stake in Fortuna Silver Mines by 15.3% during the 4th quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 5,038,830 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $21,625,000 after acquiring an additional 668,590 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Fortuna Silver Mines by 224.6% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 4,720,375 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,240,000 after acquiring an additional 3,266,096 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 33.80% of the company’s stock.

Fortuna Silver Mines Company Profile

Fortuna Mining Corp. engages in the precious and base metal mining in Argentina, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Peru, and Côte d’Ivoire. It operates through Mansfield, Sanu, Sango, Cuzcatlan, Bateas, and Corporate segments. The company primarily explores for silver, lead, zinc, and gold. Its flagship project is the Séguéla gold mine, which consists of approximately 62,000 hectares and is located in the Worodougou Region of the Woroba District, Côte d’Ivoire.