Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Newmont (NYSE:NEM)

Newmont Co. (NYSE:NEM – Get Rating) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock investors acquired 46,237 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 75% compared to the typical daily volume of 26,466 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NEM has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Newmont from $54.00 to $57.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 30th. BNP Paribas raised shares of Newmont from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $60.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 13th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of Newmont in a research report on Thursday. They issued a “hold” rating on the stock. TD Securities raised shares of Newmont from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $55.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 24th. Finally, Fundamental Research set a $51.92 price objective on shares of Newmont and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $62.21.

Newmont Stock Up 5.2 %

NEM opened at $48.17 on Friday. Newmont has a fifty-two week low of $37.45 and a fifty-two week high of $86.37. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 1.89. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $48.39 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $45.80. The company has a market capitalization of $38.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -89.20, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.31.

Newmont (NYSE:NEM – Get Rating) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 23rd. The basic materials company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by ($0.03). Newmont had a positive return on equity of 6.98% and a negative net margin of 3.60%. The business had revenue of $3.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.10 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.78 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that Newmont will post 2.24 EPS for the current year.

Newmont Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, March 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, March 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 8th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.32%. Newmont’s dividend payout ratio is currently -296.29%.

Insider Activity at Newmont

In related news, CEO Thomas Ronald Palmer sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.23, for a total transaction of $530,530.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 199,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,643,540.27. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CEO Thomas Ronald Palmer sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.23, for a total transaction of $530,530.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 199,949 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,643,540.27. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Robert D. Atkinson sold 3,000 shares of Newmont stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $44.25, for a total transaction of $132,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 87,751 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,882,981.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,000 shares of company stock valued at $1,294,720. 0.11% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Newmont

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Newmont in the 4th quarter valued at $332,897,000. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Newmont by 16.6% in the 2nd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 26,859,545 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,602,709,000 after purchasing an additional 3,819,167 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Newmont by 8.8% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,058,431 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,701,958,000 after purchasing an additional 2,921,657 shares in the last quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC boosted its stake in shares of Newmont by 43.8% in the 4th quarter. Neuberger Berman Group LLC now owns 9,394,984 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $443,470,000 after purchasing an additional 2,862,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GQG Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Newmont by 8.5% in the 2nd quarter. GQG Partners LLC now owns 34,781,848 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,076,250,000 after purchasing an additional 2,710,957 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.60% of the company’s stock.

Newmont Company Profile

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Newmont Corp. is a gold producer, engages in the exploration and acquisition of gold properties, contains copper, silver, lead, zinc or other metals. It operates through the following geographical segments: North America, South America, Nevada, Australia, and Africa. The North America segment consists primarily of carlin, phoenix, twin creeks and long canyon in the state of Nevada and Cripple Creek and Victor in the state of Colorado, in the United States.