Short Interest in Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) Expands By 21.2%

Fortuna Silver Mines Inc. (NYSE:FSM) (TSE:FVI) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,510,000 shares, a growth of 21.2% from the January 31st total of 12,800,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 11,620,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.3 days. Currently, 5.0% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fortuna Silver Mines

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortuna Silver Mines by 10.8% during the 4th quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 20,456 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $88,000 after acquiring an additional 2,000 shares in the last quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Fortuna Silver Mines by 24.4% during the 4th quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 12,440 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $53,000 after acquiring an additional 2,440 shares in the last quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank grew its holdings in shares of Fortuna Silver Mines by 19.6% during the 3rd quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 31,983 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $148,000 after acquiring an additional 5,240 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Fortuna Silver Mines by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 141,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $660,000 after acquiring an additional 5,858 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. bought a new stake in Fortuna Silver Mines in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. 33.80% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on FSM. Cibc World Mkts cut Fortuna Silver Mines from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Fortuna Silver Mines from $6.75 to $6.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 15th. Finally, CIBC downgraded Fortuna Silver Mines from a “neutral” rating to a “sector underperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.00.

Fortuna Silver Mines Stock Up 3.9 %

NYSE FSM traded up $0.18 during trading on Thursday, reaching $4.63. 21,003,252 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,187,441. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.42 billion, a PE ratio of 57.82 and a beta of 1.56. Fortuna Silver Mines has a fifty-two week low of $2.93 and a fifty-two week high of $6.36. The company has a current ratio of 1.94, a quick ratio of 1.37 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $4.63 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.71.

Fortuna Silver Mines (NYSE:FSM) (TSE:FVI) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, March 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.20 by ($0.09). Fortuna Silver Mines had a net margin of 2.45% and a return on equity of 10.08%. The company had revenue of $302.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $301.65 million. Sell-side analysts predict that Fortuna Silver Mines will post 0.51 EPS for the current year.

Fortuna Silver Mines Company Profile

Fortuna Mining Corp. engages in the precious and base metal mining in Argentina, Burkina Faso, Mexico, Peru, and Côte d’Ivoire. It operates through Mansfield, Sanu, Sango, Cuzcatlan, Bateas, and Corporate segments. The company primarily explores for silver, lead, zinc, and gold. Its flagship project is the Séguéla gold mine, which consists of approximately 62,000 hectares and is located in the Worodougou Region of the Woroba District, Côte d’Ivoire.