Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) Shares Gap Down to $17.89

Shares of Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI) gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $17.89, but opened at $16.87. Gold Fields shares last traded at $16.80, with a volume of 867,909 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on GFI. Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Gold Fields from $15.50 to $15.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 26th. BMO Capital Markets lowered shares of Gold Fields from a “market perform” rating to an “underperform” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $14.00 to $12.00 in a report on Friday, February 2nd. StockNews.com raised shares of Gold Fields from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, UBS Group lowered shares of Gold Fields from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $13.67.

Gold Fields Trading Up 1.4 %

The stock has a 50 day moving average of $15.78 and a 200 day moving average of $14.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.70, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22.

Gold Fields (NYSE:GFI) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.15 by $0.10. Equities analysts predict that Gold Fields Limited will post 1.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Gold Fields Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.1717 dividend. This is a positive change from Gold Fields’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a yield of 2.5%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GFI. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Gold Fields by 6.6% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 47,241,502 shares of the company’s stock valued at $750,667,000 after acquiring an additional 2,934,943 shares during the period. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC increased its stake in Gold Fields by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 12,810,699 shares of the company’s stock valued at $185,243,000 after purchasing an additional 2,070,427 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of Gold Fields by 0.9% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 5,015,942 shares of the company’s stock valued at $53,921,000 after purchasing an additional 43,666 shares during the period. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA boosted its position in shares of Gold Fields by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 3,377,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $48,842,000 after purchasing an additional 70,646 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group grew its stake in shares of Gold Fields by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 3,240,748 shares of the company’s stock valued at $46,861,000 after buying an additional 139,205 shares during the period. 26.02% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Gold Fields

Gold Fields Limited operates as a gold producer with reserves and resources in Chile, South Africa, Ghana, Canada, Australia, and Peru. It also explores for copper and silver deposits. The company was founded in 1887 and is based in Sandton, South Africa.