We recently published a list of 20 Small-Cap Stocks Insiders Were Buying in Q1 2025. In this article, we are going to take a look at where i-80 Gold Corp. (NYSE:IAUX) stands against other small-cap stocks insiders were buying in Q1 2025.
President Donald Trump’s initial unilateral 10% tariff went into effect on Saturday, at least partly causing the drop in the stock market. On Sunday, the President said “I don’t want anything to go down, but sometimes you have to take medicine to fix something,” as reported by CNBC.
On Monday morning, the broader market index lost 1.87%, marking an 11% loss over the past five trading days, signaling the possibility of entering a bear market. Also, during Monday’s morning session, the blue-chip companies declined 2.34% and the NASDAQ Composite lost 1.57%.
Amid market uncertainty, insider trading often attracts attention. Executive stock purchases can indicate optimism, while sales might reflect personal financial decisions or investment diversification. Executives usually follow pre-arranged strategies, such as 10b5-1 plans, and insider trading should be considered alongside the company’s financial health and market conditions.
Our Methodology
Today, we’re focusing on stocks with small market capitalizations that have seen heavy insider buying activity in the first quarter of the year. Using Insider Monkey’s insider trading screener, we identified companies with market caps between $250 million and $2 billion, where at least four insiders purchased shares in the past three months. From this list, we ranked the top 20 stocks with the highest number of insiders making purchases. Stocks that have been recently covered were excluded from our analysis.
Our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds, focusing on insider trading and stock picks from hedge fund investor newsletters and conferences. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
For each stock, we note the number of insiders who acquired shares in the first quarter and the market capitalizations. Let’s take a look at the 20 small-cap stocks insiders were buying in Q1 2025.
Aerial view of a Nevada mountain range, a reminder of the active mining sites of the company.
i-80 Gold Corp. (NYSE:IAUX)
Number of insiders buying: 6
Market Capitalization: $331.77 million
i-80 Gold is a mining company focused on exploring, developing, and producing gold, silver, and other metals in the United States. Its main assets include gold properties and mines in Nevada, such as McCoy-Cove, Granite Creek, Lone Tree, and Ruby Hill. The Reno, Nevada-based company ranks fifth among 20 small-cap stocks insiders were buying in the first quarter of the year.
In February, six insiders, including the CEO, COO, and CFO purchased a total of $474,302 worth of i-80 Gold Corp shares at an average price of $0.55 per share. Year-to-date, the stock gained 6.73% and currently trades at $0.52 per share. Over the past 12 months, the stock dropped 56.78%.
For the full year 2024, i-80 Gold reported revenue of $50.3 million, compared to $54.9 million in 2023. Gold sales totaled 21,527 ounces for the year at an average realized gold price of $2,332 per ounce, resulting in revenue of $50.2 million, compared to gold sales of 29,370 ounces at an average realized gold price of $1,956 per ounce, resulting in revenue of $57.5 million in 2023. Loss per share was $0.34 per share, compared to a loss of $0.33 per share in 2023.
The company expects to produce between 30,000 to 40,000 ounces of gold in 2025, with 20,000 to 30,000 ounces coming from Granite Creek and around 10,000 ounces from its two residual heap leach operations.
On March 31, 2025, the company entered into a prepay arrangement with National Bank of Canada, where the bank purchased 6,800 ounces of gold and 345,000 ounces of silver for delivery by September 30, 2025, as part of a recapitalization plan.
According to MarketBeat, three analysts rate i-80 Gold stock as a “Moderate Buy” with a price target of $3.50 per share. The average price target suggests a potential upside of 569.22%
Overall, IAUX ranks 5th on our list of small-cap stocks insiders were buying in Q1 2025. While we acknowledge the potential of IAUX, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns, and doing so within a shorter timeframe. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than IAUX but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
