News Bites
'We like Barrick and Agnico Eagle' - Jim Cramer
(Kitco News) It is time to be bullish on gold stocks and Jim Cramer's top two picks right now are Barrick Gold and Agnico Eagle.
When asked about First Majestic's stock during the latest Mad Money's Lightning Round on Tuesday, CNBC's Cramer said that he doesn't like silver at the moment.
Cramer replied: "First Majestic? That's a silver company. We don't like silver."
Instead, he suggested looking at Canadian gold producers such as Barrick Gold and Agnico Eagle Mines. "What we like is Barrick and Sean Boyd's company — Agnico Eagle," he said.
Cramer has highlighted Barrick as the stock to own multiple times this year as he praised Barrick's CEO Mark Bristow.
"Well, you know what, I am not gold. I am Barrick Gold. I like the work of [CEO] Dr. Mark Bristow … That would be the way I go," Cramer said back in April.
On Wednesday, investors got some more good news when it comes to Barrick as strong Q3 results were announced.
Barrick said that it beat its quarterly profit estimates and raised its dividend payout on higher production and improved gold prices.
"Q3 results show net earnings per share of $1.30, adjusted net earnings per share of $0.15, up 67% on Q2 on the back of a higher gold price, and debt net of cash down 14% at $3.2 billion after payment of the dividend. The quarterly dividend was increased by 25% to $0.05 per share on the back of the robust operational performance and the growth in cashflows," the company said in a press release.
Barrick's gold production rose to 1.31 million ounces from 1.15 million ounces a year earlier, the press release added.
Agnico Eagle also had stellar news to report about Q3, including record gold production of 476,937 ounces for the quarter. The company also saw quarterly net income of $76.7 million, or $0.32 per share, for the third quarter.
"As expected, this strong result, combined with the completion of the extensive construction spending program in Nunavut, resulted in the generation of substantial free cash flow in the quarter," said Eagle's CEO Sean Boyd. "We are in a good position to continue to invest in our project pipeline, improve our financial flexibility and grow our dividend. We are pleased to announce a 40 percent increase in our quarterly dividend."
