Newmont Corp.

GENUINE PARTS CO., $50.80, New York symbol GPC, distributes auto parts to over 5,700 independent stores in North America. The company also operates about 1,000 auto parts stores under the NAPA banner. Auto parts account for roughly 50% of its sales. It gets the other 50% by distributing industrial parts, office furniture and electrical equipment.

This week, the company agreed to buy 30% of privately held Exego Group, which distributes auto parts through 430 company-owned stores in Australia and New Zealand. The deal closes on December 1, 2011.

Genuine will pay $150 million for this stake. That’s a little less than the $151.8 million, or $0.96 a share, that Genuine earned in the three months ended June 30, 2011. Genuine Parts has an option to buy the remaining 70% of Exego, provided Exego reaches certain earnings targets.

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PFIZER INC. $18 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 7.8 billion; Market cap: $140.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 2.1; Dividend yield: 4.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) has extended the patent on Viagra, its popular erectile-dysfunction drug, to October 2019. That will block rival Teva Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Nasdaq symbol TEVA) from selling a generic version. Pfizer gets $2 billion a year from Viagra, or 3% of its annual sales of $67 billion. Pfizer is a buy. MCDONALD’S CORP. $90 (New York symbol MCD; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Consumer sector; Shares outstanding: 1.0 billion; Market cap: $90.0 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.6; Dividend yield: 2.7%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.mcdonalds.com) saw its overall same-store sales rise 5.1% in July 2011. That’s down from a 7.0% sales gain in July 2010....

NEWMONT MINING $57.12 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 500.4 million; Market cap: $27.4 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 2.1%; www.newmont.com) is one of the world’s largest gold miners. It has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru. In the three months ended June 30, 2011, Newmont earned $1.06 a share before one-time items. That’s up 35.9% from $0.78 a share a year earlier (all figures in U.S. dollars). The gains came despite a 16% rise in the company’s overall cost of producing an ounce of gold, to $588 an ounce from $507. Newmont paid more for labour, fuel and raw materials in the quarter. Revenue rose 11.0%, to $2.4 billion from $2.2 billion. The company continues to benefit from rising gold prices....

BHP BILLITON LTD. ADRs, $91.08, New York symbol BHP, is buying Petrohawk Energy Corp. (New York symbol HK), which produces oil and natural gas from properties in Texas and Louisiana. The $12.1-billion purchase price is equal to 5% of BHP’s $242.6-billion market cap. The company held cash of $16.6 billion at December 31, 2010, so it can comfortably afford this acquisition. BHP expects to close the deal by September 30, 2011. BHP is mostly a mining company, but is expanding its oil and gas operations. This purchase will give BHP control of roughly one million acres in the large Haynesville, Eagle Ford and Permian Basin shale-gas discoveries. (Shale gas is natural gas that is trapped in rock formations. To extract it, companies must pump water and chemicals into the rock. This fractures the rock and releases the natural gas.)...

Gold hit an all-time high of $1,577.50 U.S. an ounce in April, before falling to around $1,500 U.S. Gold now trades at around $1,529.30 U.S. Like gold, silver reached an all-time high in April, when it hit $49.76 U.S. an ounce. It, however, fell sharply, and now trades at $35.88 U.S. Gold and silver could well regain their highs and move up even further over the longer term, although they will likely remain volatile. Higher prices would arise from investor fears that inflation or global political and economic instability will weaken key currencies, such as the U.S. dollar. If you want to hold a number of gold or silver stocks, these two exchange-traded funds offer top-quality global miners and low fees....

Prices of many commodities have moved down from their recent peaks on concerns about the global economic recovery. Rather than selling, the best way to cut your risk in the volatile resource sector is to stick with well-established mining companies with high-quality reserves like Newmont, Alcoa and BHP. As well, these firms mainly operate in politically stable areas, like North America and Australia. NEWMONT MINING CORP. $54 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 493.7 million; Market cap: $26.7 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.0; Dividend yield: 1.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) gets 85% of its revenue from its gold mines in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Indonesia and Ghana. The remaining 15% comes from copper, silver, zinc and other metals....

EUROPEAN GOLDFIELDS $12.14 (Toronto symbol EGU; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (44 (20) 7408 9534; www.egoldfields.com; Shares outstanding: 184.8 million; Market cap: $2.2 billion; No dividends paid) holds a 95% interest in Hellas Gold. Aktor S.A., Greece’s largest construction company, owns the other 5% of Hellas, as well as 19.3% of European Goldfields’ shares. Hellas owns three gold and base-metal deposits in Greece: the Stratoni zinc/lead/silver property, the Olympias gold/zinc/lead/silver project and the Skouries copper/gold property. In the three months ended December 31, 2010, European Goldfields’ revenue fell 2.6%, to $18.2 million from $18.7 million a year earlier on lower overall production. (All figures except share price and market cap in U.S. dollars.) The company lost $0.09 a share in the latest quarter, compared to a loss of $0.04 share. It holds cash of $57.1 million, or $0.31 a share, and has no debt....

YAMANA GOLD $11.68 (Toronto symbol YRI; TSINetwork Rating: Speculative) (416-815-0220; www.yamana.com; Shares outstanding: 741.9 million; Market cap: $8.8 billion; Dividend yield: 1.5%) has raised its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.045 a share from $0.03 a share. This is the second time this year that the company has raised its payout: it increased its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.03 from $0.02, with the January 2011 payment. The new rate gives the shares a 1.5% yield. That’s a high dividend rate for a gold stock. By contrast, Barrick Gold yields 1.1%, Newmont Mining yields 1.5% and Goldcorp yields 0.9%. Yamana is also increasing its exploration budget. It will spend $105 million on exploration in 2011, up 23.5% from $85 million in 2010. Yamana expects to keep raising this spending in the following years. It could spend as much as $125 million on exploration in 2012....

YAMANA GOLD, $11.46, symbol YRI on Toronto, has raised its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.045 a share, from $0.03 a share. This is the second time this year that the company has raised its payout: it increased its quarterly dividend by 50%, to $0.03 from $0.02, with the January 2011 payment. The new rate gives the shares a 1.6% yield. That’s a high dividend rate for a gold stock. By contrast, Barrick Gold yields 1.1%, Newmont Mining yields 1.5% and Goldcorp yields 0.9%. Yamana is also increasing its exploration budget. It will spend $105 million on exploration in 2011, up 23.5% from $85 million in 2010. Yamana expects to keep raising this spending in the following years. It could spend as much as $125 million on exploration in 2012....

Gold hit an all-time high of $1,577.50 U.S. an ounce in April, before moving down to today’s price of $1,527.50. Silver jumped to an all-time high of $49.76 U.S. before retreating sharply to $39.94. Gold and silver could well regain their highs and move up even further over the longer term, although they will likely remain volatile. Higher prices would arise from investor fears that inflation or global political and economic instability will weaken key currencies, such as the U.S. dollar. If you want to hold a number of gold or silver stocks, these two exchange-traded funds offer top-quality global miners and low fees....