Major 2016 Gold Rally Still Has 4 Gold Stocks Lagging Way Behind With Losses

At the end of 2015, it seemed like the bull market for stocks was ready to turn seven years old, and gold’s chart and fundamentals looked like it was at risk of dropping under $1,000. Fast forward about six weeks into 2016 and you have a very different story. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is now down 8%, versus a gold rally of close to 12%.

There is a perfect storm taking place for gold. Central banks need to keep buying gold. Quantitative easing continues, with Japan and Europe both having negative interest rates. The rate hike plan from the U.S. Federal Reserve may be smaller than the talking heads were expecting, and the emerging market slow down and uncertainty is keeping investors on edge.

24/7 Wall St. saw that there have been many gold stocks among the top winning stocks so far in 2016. Some are up 50% to over 100%, while the Dow, S&P and Nasdaq are all performing horribly. Still, the rising tide of gold has not been mutually beneficial for every gold mining or exploration outfit. We have added color and relevant trading data on each. With some of these being small cap and thinly covered by analysts, the consensus analyst targets on each might not be as relevant as others.

Primero Mining Corp. (NYSE: PPP) has been crushed due to a legal claim filed by tax authorities in Mexico. It is also in pre-class action investigations by law firms. This stock is down 26% from the end of 2015 and is down about 54% from a year ago. Its market cap is $278 million and a discount to its book value, despite cost cuts and low costs (2015 consolidated total cash costs at roughly $637 an ounce and all-in sustaining costs of about $972 an ounce). Shares were trading at $1.71 on Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $3.06 and a 52-week trading range of $1.54 to $4.49.
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B2Gold Corp. (NYSEMKT: BTG) is still a penny stock, and it recently announced a casualty at its Otjikoto Mine. B2Gold shares were last seen down about 51% from a year ago and down 14% from the end of 2015. The company recently gave fourth-quarter results for 2015: record quarterly consolidated gold production of 131,469 ounces (up 18% per year) and gold revenue of $139 million on record sales of 127,482 ounces at an average price of $1,090 per ounce. Shares of B2Gold were trading at $0.89, within a 52-week range of $0.60 to $1.87. The consensus price target is $1.74.

Seabridge Gold Inc. (NYSE: SA) is worth $406 million in market cap, and the stock is down 10% from a year ago and down 9% from the last day of 2015. This is one of the development stage companies in the acquisition and exploration of gold properties (also with copper, silver and molybdenum) located in North America. It rarely releases news. Seabridge shares were trading at $7.70. The consensus price target is $13.75, and the 52-week range is $3.31 to $9.63.

Eldorado Gold Corp. (NYSE: EGO) may have a great name behind it, but this $2 billion market cap gold player in Brazil, China, Greece, Turkey and Romania is not doing well so far in 2016. Its shares are down 45% from a year ago and are still down 7% so far in 2016, after its results included a $1.6 billion impairment charge. JPMorgan and RBC both recently reiterated their Outperform ratings for Eldorado. Its 2015 gold production was 723,532 ounces and its 2015 all-in sustaining cash costs averaged $841 per ounce, with cash operating costs averaging $552 an ounce. Shares were recently trading at $2.75, with a consensus analyst target of $3.46 and a 52-week trading range of $1.87 to $5.80.