Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Iamgold (NYSE:IAG)

Iamgold Corporation (NYSE:IAG) (TSE:IMG) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 10,553 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 268% compared to the typical daily volume of 2,869 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in Iamgold in the 1st quarter valued at $531,000. Western Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Iamgold during the first quarter worth $43,000. Bank of America Corp DE raised its position in shares of Iamgold by 4.7% in the first quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 9,589,342 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $180,471,000 after buying an additional 434,188 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC purchased a new position in shares of Iamgold in the first quarter worth about $13,056,000. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Iamgold by 73.6% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 2,712 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $51,000 after acquiring an additional 1,150 shares during the last quarter. 47.08% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on IAG. Zacks Research cut Iamgold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Weiss Ratings downgraded Iamgold from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on Iamgold to $25.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Iamgold has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.75.

Iamgold Price Performance

Iamgold stock traded down $0.75 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $16.16. The company had a trading volume of 1,024,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,640,746. The company has a market capitalization of $9.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.39, a P/E/G ratio of 0.81 and a beta of 1.25. Iamgold has a 12-month low of $6.69 and a 12-month high of $24.87. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.40. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a current ratio of 1.89 and a quick ratio of 1.21.

Iamgold (NYSE:IAG) (TSE:IMG) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, May 5th. The mining company reported $0.66 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.52 by $0.14. Iamgold had a return on equity of 26.65% and a net margin of 29.49%.The company had revenue of $1.01 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $955.17 million. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Iamgold will post 2.27 EPS for the current year.

About Iamgold

IAMGOLD Corporation, founded in 1990 and headquartered in Toronto, is a mid-tier gold producer engaged in the exploration, development and operation of gold mining assets. The company’s primary focus is on the discovery and extraction of gold, with a portfolio that spans both operating mines and advanced development projects. IAMGOLD combines in-house technical expertise with strategic partnerships to advance projects from exploration through to production.

The company’s principal producing assets include the Essakane gold mine in Burkina Faso, which began commercial production in 2010, and the Westwood underground gold mine in Quebec’s Abitibi region.