New Gold (NYSE:NGD) Sees Unusually-High Trading Volume – Still a Buy?

Shares of New Gold Inc. (NYSE:NGD) saw an uptick in trading volume on Tuesday . 14,004,328 shares changed hands during trading, an increase of 30% from the previous session’s volume of 10,795,266 shares.The stock last traded at $3.60 and had previously closed at $3.71.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NGD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. New Street Research set a $3.90 price objective on New Gold in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. Bank of America upgraded New Gold from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $2.60 to $3.90 in a research note on Wednesday, March 26th. CIBC reduced their price objective on shares of New Gold from $3.60 to $3.40 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of New Gold from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded shares of New Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, New Gold has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $3.70.

New Gold Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $3.06 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.88. The company has a market cap of $2.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.85 and a beta of 1.35.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NGD. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of New Gold by 97.1% in the fourth quarter. Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,482,782 shares of the company’s stock valued at $23,657,000 after buying an additional 4,671,399 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in New Gold by 97.3% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,944,585 shares of the company’s stock valued at $14,742,000 after acquiring an additional 2,931,470 shares in the last quarter. Nokomis Capital L.L.C. grew its holdings in shares of New Gold by 203.8% during the 4th quarter. Nokomis Capital L.L.C. now owns 4,147,296 shares of the company’s stock worth $10,285,000 after purchasing an additional 2,782,296 shares in the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of New Gold by 11.6% during the 4th quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 25,146,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $62,363,000 after purchasing an additional 2,619,782 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in New Gold by 36.9% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 9,703,381 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,203,000 after purchasing an additional 2,613,285 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 42.82% of the company’s stock.

About New Gold

New Gold Inc, an intermediate gold mining company, develops and operates of mineral properties in Canada. It primarily explores for gold, silver, and copper deposits. The company’s principal operating properties include 100% interest in the Rainy River mine located in Northwestern Ontario, Canada; and New Afton project situated in South-Central British Columbia.