newmont mining

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....

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....