Javed Mirza Agnico-Eagle Mines AEM-T TOP PICK Jan 31, 2025

Single finest precious metals mining operating company in the world. So it's the most valuable, even though its production is not as high as ABX or NGT. Exemplary corporate and safety cultures, and people like to work there. Grounded in Canada, skilled Mexican miner vis-a-vis politics and sociology. This name, along with WPM and FNV, needs to be in every single precious metals portfolio.

(Disclaimer:  AEM is sponsoring his symposium next week.)

Great way for most people to get exposure to precious metals, which has a multi-year bull market in front of it. Generates a ton of cash. This year will see ~30% growth in cashflow generation over last year, even assuming lower gold prices from where they are now. 

Paying down debt; once it gets to a certain level, they'll look at increasing dividends. Consistent share buybacks. In safe jurisdictions. Proven best operators in the business. Relatively long reserve life, lots of opportunity to increase reserves at existing mines. Yield is 1.35%.

Biggest single equity holding he has in client portfolios. He did trim, as it got to be way too big a position. Like the gold price, has stagnated over the last few months. Sees it as portfolio protection, insulates from inflation and geopolitical concerns. Tariff issues are still to be resolved, and there's still the impact of tariffs to look at (earnings, inflation, interest rates, the dollar). 

Best gold-mining company in the world. Yield is 1.35%.

It is a benchmark name but fully valued. Has an excellent management team. It faces a growth deficit relative to its peers but might have more torque to the upside. He likes B2 Gold which provides enormous opportunity in Mali and Indonesia. He is not too concerned about the political situations there but they are not as safe an area as Northern Ontario or Quebec.

Go-to name (along with LUG) in the gold space. Rock star. Awesome chart. Looking at the 6-month chart, he's cautious. Starting to see some selling pressure in gold underneath the surface. Importantly, seasonality as we get through September-October is really weak for gold stocks; really picks up from November-April. 

Pretty good support ~$172.50, so that's where he'd prefer to step in.

Trimmed lightly. Still one of the largest weights in dividend growers mandate. Would like to see more dividend increases, now that debt is close to zero. 

Yesterday, he took just a little bit of gold out; on a 14% weighting, he sold around 2%. Doesn't own this one right now. If you're a longer-term player, gold has lots of room to go.

Gold looks a bit extended (temporarily). You can see that on the AEM chart; the breakout was around $80, had a good move, and now it's arcing off of the trendline.