Gold Fields Limited (NYSE:GFI – Get Rating) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 48,550,000 shares, an increase of 9.3% from the August 15th total of 44,400,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,920,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 6.1 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Gold Fields

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in Gold Fields by 10.9% during the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 52,593,621 shares of the company's stock worth $479,654,000 after purchasing an additional 5,165,756 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. increased its holdings in Gold Fields by 10.2% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 25,589,382 shares of the company's stock worth $395,611,000 after purchasing an additional 2,368,601 shares during the period. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC increased its holdings in Gold Fields by 11.0% during the 2nd quarter. RWC Asset Advisors US LLC now owns 16,454,333 shares of the company's stock worth $150,063,000 after purchasing an additional 1,627,485 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its holdings in Gold Fields by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 8,929,310 shares of the company's stock worth $98,133,000 after purchasing an additional 351,849 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its position in shares of Gold Fields by 17.6% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 8,646,084 shares of the company's stock worth $78,852,000 after acquiring an additional 1,295,300 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 26.34% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Investec raised Gold Fields from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 7th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $13.77.

Gold Fields Stock Performance

Gold Fields Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 29th. Investors of record on Friday, September 16th will be issued a $0.172 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, September 15th. This represents a dividend yield of 3.4%.

About Gold Fields

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Gold Fields Limited operates as a gold producer with reserves and resources in Chile, South Africa, Ghana, West Africa, Australia, and Peru. The company also explores for copper deposits. It holds interests in 9 operating mines with an annual gold-equivalent production of approximately 2.34 million ounces, as well as gold mineral reserves of approximately 48.6 million ounces and mineral resources of approximately 111.8 million ounces.

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