Traders Purchase High Volume of Equinox Gold Call Options (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX)

Equinox Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 36,593 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of 198% compared to the typical volume of 12,282 call options.

Institutional Trading of Equinox Gold

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in EQX. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Equinox Gold by 91.3% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 96,024,048 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,077,394,000 after purchasing an additional 45,820,861 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Equinox Gold by 3.1% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,464,616 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,659,000 after buying an additional 822,981 shares in the last quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. lifted its position in Equinox Gold by 11.1% during the 2nd quarter. Donald Smith & CO. Inc. now owns 26,507,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $152,419,000 after buying an additional 2,643,856 shares in the last quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Equinox Gold by 120.4% during the 2nd quarter. L1 Capital Pty Ltd now owns 23,908,865 shares of the company’s stock worth $137,476,000 after buying an additional 13,060,846 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Equinox Gold by 16.3% in the 3rd quarter. Maple Rock Capital Partners Inc. now owns 16,644,848 shares of the company’s stock valued at $186,664,000 after acquiring an additional 2,336,100 shares in the last quarter. 38.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Equinox Gold Stock Performance

EQX opened at $14.70 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $11.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 294.06 and a beta of 1.25. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $12.35 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $9.27. Equinox Gold has a 1 year low of $4.95 and a 1 year high of $15.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 1.07 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

Equinox Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:EQX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.13 by $0.06. Equinox Gold had a return on equity of 5.57% and a net margin of 2.71%.The business had revenue of $819.01 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $607.81 million. Equinox Gold’s revenue was up 91.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Equinox Gold will post 0.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

EQX has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Scotiabank raised shares of Equinox Gold from a “hold” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 6th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating on shares of Equinox Gold in a report on Friday, September 5th. Stifel Canada raised shares of Equinox Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, December 1st. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of Equinox Gold from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Finally, Cormark raised Equinox Gold from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 15th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $26.00.

About Equinox Gold

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.