newmont mining

PETSMART INC., $67.28, Nasdaq symbol PETM, operates 1,340 pet stores in the U.S. and Canada. It also has 200 in-store PetsHotel boarding facilities for dogs and cats. The stock jumped 12% this week on news that activist investment firm Jana Partners now owns 9.9% of the company. Jana has a history of pressuring companies to improve shareholder value, typically by spinning off certain operations, buying back more shares or raising their dividends. PetSmart currently pays a quarterly dividend of $0.195 a share, for a 1.2% annualized yield. Jana could also encourage PetSmart’s management to sell the entire company....

ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $10.60 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index.

This index is made up of 38 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund’s MER is 0.60%. It began trading on March 23, 2001.

The fund’s top holdings are Goldcorp at 15.8%; Barrick Gold, 15.6%; Newmont Mining, 9.4%; Franco Nevada, 5.6%; Randgold Resources (ADR), 5.6%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 5.3%; Yamana Gold, 4.6%; Agnico-Eagle Mines, 4.4%; Kinross, 3.6%; Eldorado Gold, 3.4%; Royal Gold, 3.4%; Osisko Mining, 2.7%; Gold Fields (ADR), 2.3%; and New Gold, 2.2%.

...

HILLSHIRE BRANDS CO., $58.92, New York symbol HSH, continues to attract new takeover offers. The company makes a variety of packaged meat products. Its main brands include Ball Park hot dogs, Jimmy Dean sausages and Hillshire Farm deli meats. Other foods include Sara Lee frozen desserts and Chef Pierre pies. The stock jumped 11% this week after Pilgrim’s Pride Corp. (Nasdaq symbol PPC) offered to buy the company for $55.00 a share. That topped last week’s $50.00-a-share bid by Tyson Foods (New York symbol TSN)....

The price of gold hit a low of around $1,200 in December 2013. It then moved up to almost $1,400 in two months. But the price has since fallen and is once again close to $1,200. Silver fell to $19 U.S. an ounce in December 2013. It rebounded to $22 in February 2014 but is down again, at $18.81 an ounce. Over the longer term, gold and silver could well regain their early 2011 highs ($1,900 for gold and $48.48 for silver), but they will likely remain volatile. Meanwhile, they will probably stay in a narrow range for some months....

NEWMONT MINING $24.83 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 497.9 million; Market cap: $12.6 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 0.4%; www.newmont.com) has broken off merger talks with Barrick Gold (Toronto symbol ABX) amid reports of personality conflicts and a failure to agree on key issues such as the location of a new head office and who would lead the combined company. Both Newmont and Barrick have large mining operations in Nevada, so a merger would have let them significantly cut their operating costs. That would have helped the combined firm cope with lower gold prices. Due to weak gold and copper prices, Newmont’s earnings fell 69.4% in the first quarter of 2014, to $108 million, or $0.22 a share. A year earlier, it earned $353 million, or $0.70 a share. Revenue declined 19.4%, to $1.8 billion from $2.2 billion....

APPLE INC., $571.94, Nasdaq symbol AAPL, rose 9% this week after it announced several moves to enhance its investment appeal. These initiatives include raising its quarterly dividend by 7.9%, to $3.29 a share from $3.05. The new annual rate of $13.16 yields 2.3%. Apple also increased its share buyback program by $30 billion. It can now repurchase up to $90 billion worth of its stock by the end of 2015. That’s equal to 18% of its $492.9-billion market cap. Apple will also split its outstanding shares on a 7-for-1 basis in June 2014. In addition to making its shares more affordable, the split would make Apple a candidate for the Dow Jones Industrial Average. If Apple does join the widely followed Dow, mutual funds and exchange traded funds that mimic the index would have to buy the stock, which would push up the share price....

Dynacor Gold Mines, $1.90, symbol DNG on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 36.3 million; Market cap: $69.1 million; www.dynacorgold.com), owns five exploration properties in Peru. The company is focused on its Tumipampa property, where exploration drilling has revealed gold and copper mineralization, including in an area where Spanish settlers mined five high-grade gold-silver veins in colonial times. Dynacor is using cash flow from its 100%-owned Huanca gold and silver milling plant to finance its exploration activities....

ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $11.19 (Toronto symbol XGD; buy or sell through brokers; ca.ishares.com) aims to mirror the performance of the S&P/TSX Global Gold Index.

This index is made up of 37 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund’s MER is 0.60%. It began trading on March 23, 2001.

The fund’s top holdings are Barrick Gold at 17.9%; Goldcorp, 16.1%; Newmont Mining, 8.6%; Franco Nevada, 5.7%; Yamana Gold, 5.6%; Randgold Resources (ADR), 5.1%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 4.7%; Agnico-Eagle Mines, 4.3%; Kinross, 4.2%; Eldorado Gold, 3.6%; Royal Gold, 2.9%; New Gold, 2.3%, Gold Fields (ADR), 2.1% and Osisko Mining, 2.1%.
...

The price of gold hit a low of around $1,200 in July 2013. It then moved up to $1,400 in two months. The price subsequently moved back down and is now close to $1,320....

Royal Canadian Mint Gold Reserves Exchange Traded Receipts (ETRs), $13.61, symbol MNT on Toronto (Receipts outstanding: 35.8 million; Market cap: $540.4 million; www.reserves.mint.ca), are receipts issued by the Royal Canadian Mint (the Crown corporation responsible for minting and distributing Canada’s circulation coins) that let investors own gold bullion stored in the Mint’s vaults. The value of these ETRs varies with the price of gold. Investors can trade their ETRs on the stock exchange, or once a month they can redeem them for gold coins or bullion with a minimum purity of 99.99%. This requires at least 10,000 ETRs plus redemption and fabrication fees for the gold coins or bars. Instead of physical gold, investors can choose to redeem their units for cash equal to 95% of the lesser of: a) the ETR price on the redemption date; or b) the volume-weighted average price of the ETRs for five trading days prior to and including the redemption date....