Bear of the Day: Equinox Gold (EQX)
Equinox Gold (EQX) is a $2.7 billion miner of gold, copper, and silver deposits in Brazil and California. EQX is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.The company recently announced fourth-quarter 2024 gold production of 213,960 ounces, marking their strongest quarterly haul. EQX’s record gold production in Q4 was driven by several of its mines seeing their best quarters in the company's history. Equinox Gold reported a preliminary annual gold production of a record 621,870 ounces for 2024. The figure came within the company’s provided guidance of 590,000-675,000 ounces.EQX became a Zacks #5 Rank after this announcement because the 2025 EPS consensus among three analysts fell 12% from $0.92 to $0.81. But that's not to say the profit picture looks weak with 2024 expected to grow over 400% from 7-cents to 36-cents per share and the 2025 forecast of 81-cents would equal a 125% advance. Even this year's topline is projected to grow 70% to $2.5 billion. All this goodness, and yet the stock stays stuck in a range between $5 and $6.50 since last April.Precious Up, Miners DownWe may have to wait until their mid-February earnings call to learn more.But one of my favorite themes here to look at is how the miners perform relative to their yellow metal. Once again, the precious metal has pushed into new highs, but the miners, as a basket like the VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX), have declined over the past few months.Even global-macro hedge fund manager -- and ultra gold-bull -- Peter Schiff noticed this disparity recently.The truth is shocking to any gold investor: most mining stocks continue to deteriorate even as their precious rises. Often it is the result of forward hedging programs that sell future production in advance as gold rallies.Here's what Schiff posted on X on January 24...Gold is only $10 below its all-time record high, yet gold mining stocks are still in bear markets. Gold stock indices need to rally over 18% from yesterday's close just to get back to their October 2024 highs. The most unloved gold bull market in history will also be the biggest!Maybe Schiff will be right. But I'd find other places for my inflation hedge and store of value besides the miners.5 Stocks Set to DoubleEach was handpicked by a Zacks expert as the #1 favorite stock to gain +100% or more in 2024. While not all picks can be winners, previous recommendations have soared +143.0%, +175.9%, +498.3% and +673.0%.Most of the stocks in this report are flying under Wall Street radar, which provides a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor.Today, See These 5 Potential Home Runs >>Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report Equinox Gold Corp. (EQX): Free Stock Analysis Report VanEck Gold Miners ETF (GDX): ETF Research ReportsTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks
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