Stockchase Opinions

Peter Arender, CFA Barrick Gold ABX-T DON'T BUY Apr 21, 2004

Looks particularly expensive.
$28.050

Stock price when the opinion was issued

precious metals
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WAIT

Laggard compared to other stocks and to gold itself. Mystery as to why it's not breaking out, but it's probably something fundamental. A wall around $19-20, needs to break that. 

Good news is that the lows aren't getting lower. It's in a trading band. You can buy when it moves to the bottom and trade the bands, or you can buy on a breakout.

WATCH

Pretty big strength in the last 6 months. If you look at the chart, seeing pretty big moves within a band. It wants to get above $24.50 before it takes a shot at $31, which is the peak from 2022. Want to see it break out and then keep momentum going.

Sometimes the biggest in any sector, especially gold, can be kind of mushy. Can be safe, but sometimes acts like dead money. The risk/reward may not be there.

HOLD

Gold prices strong lately. Overall, commodities very strong. Would recommend holding for the long term. Technically - chart could be better - but fundamentals very strong for this business. 

BUY

Would recommend buying at the current share price. Has good list of projects, strong balance sheet and good management. Gold prices have been strong which is good for earnings. Margins continue to remain stable. Expecting better performance in Q4. Share price is at a good place to buy. 

SELL

He's been lightening up on gold. With a strong USD, and interest rates possibly being higher, gold may take a few steps back. The two biggest names, NGT and ABX, have really shown miserable production growth. Underperformed the group for a number of years now. They don't have the growth assets and their size means they can't accelerate as much. 

BUY ON WEAKNESS
Write some puts?

If you're bullish on gold, a good strategy. He'd prefer to do it with AEM, but hard to do given that the stock price is so high.

Fine company, good assets, above-average quality base. Really good optionality to grow. Very cheap at 11.2x PE for 2025. Recent problems in different jurisdictions. Gold has suffered with the USD screaming higher. Might even be subject to tax-loss selling.

You could make $19-20 the strike price, and get paid a nice premium, but the trouble often is that you're right about the direction of the stock, but you don't end up owning it. If it goes to $30, you miss out on making the big money. Options are a great tool that can add to your portfolio, but not always the way to go.

DON'T BUY

Compare this to the chart of gold prices or XGD, and ABX is very different, lagging. Instead of Barrick, look at leaders like Agnico Eagle.

WEAK BUY

Ran into a real meat grinder with an African government (a military dictatorship). Shows the difference between those jurisdictions that are safe and those that aren't. Has NA holdings too, so it's not the end of the world. Stock's cheap. Not a bad buy if gold keeps on moving (which he expects).

WATCH

Has some hair on it, but pretty cheap. His guess is that in the next month or so, Trump's going to roll back a lot of stuff and the economy will be better. So areas like gold are going to sell off.

DON'T BUY

Still digesting all its M&A. Mines located in places with higher geopolitical risk. Good run because gold's had a good run. Instead, she owns AEM.