Newmont Corp.

NEWMONT MINING $56.43 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 493.7 million; Market cap: $27.9 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.4%; www.newmont.com) earned $1.04 a share before one-time items in the three months ended March 31, 2011, up 25.3% from $0.83 a year earlier. The latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $0.99 a share. Revenue rose 9.9%, to $2.5 billion from $2.2 billion. This dividend paying stock continues to benefit from rising gold prices. Newmont now plans to link future dividend hikes to the price of gold: it will raise the quarterly rate by $0.05 a share for each $100 per ounce rise in its average selling price for gold in the preceding quarter. The rise in gold prices in the latest quarter prompted the company to raise its quarterly dividend by 33.3%, to $0.20 a share from $0.15. The new annual rate of $0.80 yields 1.4%....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Friday, April 29, 2011. INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORP., $168.28, New York symbol IBM, reported higher-than-expected earnings this week. In the three months ended March 31, 2011, IBM’s earnings rose 10.1%, to $2.9 billion from $2.6 billion a year earlier. Earnings per share rose 17.3%, to $2.31 from $1.97, on fewer shares outstanding. Excluding one-time items, such as costs related to acquisitions, IBM earned $2.41 a share. On that basis, the latest earnings beat the consensus estimate of $2.29....

PLEASE NOTE: Our next Hotline will go out on Thursday, April 7, 2011. EBAY INC., $31.36, Nasdaq symbol EBAY, is buying GSI Commerce Inc. (Nasdaq symbol GSIC) which sells e-commerce services to over 500 businesses. GSI’s customers include major retailers, such as Toys R Us and Aeropostale, consumer-electronics makers, including Hewlett-Packard, and professional-sports leagues, such as the National Football League. GSI helps these clients process and fulfill online orders, and increase their online sales....

All gold investments, even large, multinational gold-mining stocks like Newmont Mining (symbol NEM on New York), are somewhat speculative, due to their sensitivity to gold prices and the difficulty of finding gold mines. That’s why we recommend that you limit them to a small part of your overall portfolio — this is especially true of more volatile junior gold stocks. (You can get our latest views on the outlook for gold, as well as our latest advice on lower-risk gold investing strategies, in our free special report, “Gold Investing: 7 Profitable Strategies for Investing in Canadian Gold Stocks.” Click here to download your copy now.)...

Seabridge Gold Inc., $29.81, symbol SEA on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 40.5 million; Market cap: $1.2 billion, www.seabridgegold.net), explores for gold and copper in B.C., the Northwest Territories, Oregon, Nevada and Mexico. Seabridge’s largest asset is its 100%-owned Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell gold/copper project, located 21 kilometres from Barrick Gold’s Eskay Creek mine in northwestern B.C. The company believes Kerr-Sulphurets-Mitchell contains 38.9 million ounces of gold and 10 billion pounds of copper. Seabridge continues to drill to expand the known deposit, and work toward completing a feasibility study. The company’s other large asset is its 100%-owned Courageous Lake gold project in the Northwest Territories. Seabridge bought this property from Newmont Mining in 2002. The company estimates that Courageous Lake contains over 7 million ounces of gold....

ISHARES S&P/TSX GLOBAL GOLD INDEX FUND $24.91 (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 gold stocks from Canada and around the world. The weight of any one company is capped at 25% of the index’s market capitalization. The fund’s MER is 0.55%. iShares S&P/TSX Global Gold Index Fund began trading on March 23, 2001. The fund’s top-ten holdings are Barrick Gold at 18.4%; Goldcorp., 12.7%; Newmont Mining, 10.5%; Kinross, 7.5%; AngloGold Ashanti (ADR), 6.5%; Agnico-Eagle, 4.5%; Gold Fields (ADR), 4.4%; Eldorado Gold, 3.5%; Yamana Gold, 3.3%; and Randgold Resources (ADR), 2.6%....

So far this year, gold is down 3.5% from $1,421 U.S. an ounce at the end of 2010. But at $1,371, it’s still up 25% from a year ago. Silver is down 4.7%, to $29.27. But that’s still up 68% from a year ago. Gold and silver could well move higher over the longer term, although they will likely remain volatile. Higher prices would arise from investor fears that continued low interest rates and governments injecting money into their economies will spur inflation or weaken their currencies. 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....

NEWMONT MINING $58.32 (New York symbol NEM; Shares outstanding: 484.7 million; Market cap: $28.2 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Average; Dividend yield: 1.0%; www.newmont.com) is one of the world’s largest gold miners. Newmont has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru. In the three months ended September 30, 2010, Newmont’s revenue rose 26.7%, to a record $2.6 billion from $2.05 billion a year earlier. Before one-time items, earnings per share rose 36.7%, to $1.08 from $0.79. Cash flow per share rose 29.6%, to $2.41 from $1.86. Higher gold prices offset the the negative impact of a stronger Australian dollar, start-up costs at its Boddington gold mine in Australia, higher royalties, and lower production in South America....

Indigo Exploration, $0.46, symbol IXI on Toronto (Shares outstanding: 19.2 million; Market cap: $8.8 million; www.indigoexploration.com), is focused on exploring its Moule property in the west African nation of Burkina Faso. Basic surface and trench sampling has revealed gold mineralization. The company is now undertaking a 5,000-metre drilling program to follow up on these results. Indigo has cash of $800,000 to fund the program. West Africa has favourable geology for gold mining, and there are several major producing mines in the area, including mines operated by IAMGold, AngloGold Ashanti, Randgold Resources, Gold Fields Limited and Newmont Mining. However, while properties in the same region as existing mines can contain significant gold deposits, the odds of finding a mineable deposit are still very remote....

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $61 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 493.1 million; Market cap: $30.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 3.2; Dividend yield: 1.0%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) is one of the world’s largest gold-mining companies. Newmont has major mines in the U.S., Australia and Peru. Gold accounts for about 85% of Newmont’s revenue. The remaining 15% comes from copper, zinc and other metals. Most of Newmont’s copper comes from its 35.4% stake in the large Batu Hijau mining complex in Indonesia. Gold has jumped 35%, from $1,062 an ounce in February 2010 to a new all-time high of $1,433 in December 2010. Newmont prefers to sell its gold at the market price instead of through long-term hedging contracts that lock in prices. This policy has helped it take full advantage of rising gold prices....