Episode summary
Gold Miner Stocks Plunge: Buy the Dip
Zacks Market Edge
· · 20 min · Hosts: Tracey Ryniec
Summary
Gold miner stocks sold off sharply alongside gold, and Tracey Ryniec argued that the pullback is a buying opportunity rather than a reason to exit. She said the miners generally move with the underlying metal, so the recent drop is simply removing some of the froth after a huge run-up. The episode focused on large-cap miners Gold Fields (GFI), Newmont (NEM), and Barrick (B), with Agnico Eagle (AEM) mentioned as another expensive but still strongly growing name. Tracey also highlighted the gold miners ETF GDX as a simpler basket approach.
Her central argument was that investors are buying operating businesses, not just gold exposure, and that record gold prices in Q4 should translate into record free cash flow. She expects miners to return that cash through buybacks, special dividends, and debt reduction. She pointed to low forward P/Es, rising earnings estimates, and supportive conditions like lower energy costs as reasons the sector still looks attractive, even after big gains over the past year.
Key takeaways
- Tracey Ryniec says the recent sell-off in gold miners is a dip to buy, not a signal to avoid the sector.
- Gold Fields (GFI) is a Zacks Rank #1, with Tracey citing 2025 earnings growth of 138% and a forward P/E of 10.
- Newmont (NEM) is the largest miner by market cap in the group, and Tracey highlighted 2026 earnings estimates rising to 767 from 739.
- Barrick (B) is set to report on February 5 before the open, and Tracey said analysts are still raising estimates ahead of the print.
- Tracey said GDX is down with the miners, but it offers a simpler basket play on the group and still benefits from dividends and buybacks.
Notable quotes
“This is the time. They've been waiting 50 years for these kinds of market conditions”
“these are what we would expect, some phenomenal numbers”
“I do consider it a buying opportunity given the outlook and that anything over 4,000 is going to be tremendous free cash flows for these companies”
“We're buying the company here, not really the gold”
How the episode opens
Stocks, bonds, ETFs, straight out of downtown Chicago. This is Zach's Market Edge. Welcome to Zach's Market Edge, the podcast about investing in your life.
I'm your host, Tracy Reinick, and this week I'm going solo to talk about the gold miners. Did you think I wouldn't? We've been talking about them for about 18 months now, but we've seen a lot of volatility in the gold and the silver markets.
And we've seen big pullbacks in gold. And that also means big pullbacks in the miners. They generally do move in tandem with the underlying precious metal.
And it's been fun on the way up, but now we're on the way down. And I wanted to cover some of the big names of the gold miners. There's many we could look at, but I'm sticking with just the big guys today.
And you can apply this analysis to any of the gold miners. You just have to go on zach.com and uh use it on any of those stocks you're interested in, the big guys or the junior gold miners. They're all doing the same thing.
Also, we are just ahead of the earnings season. One of the stocks I'm going to talk about today uh is going to report earnings this week. So, by the time you're watching this or listening to this, it will have already reported earnings.
And then we're going to get a deluge of all the other big miners reporting earnings and it's going to be an important earnings season. It is about Q4, not what's going on right now, but gold was at record highs for Q4. I'm estimating most of them probably saw close to $4,000 an ounce as their average for Q4.
They saw about 3500 for Q3. Uh that was a record for Q3 for any quarter.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- gold sell-off
- gold miner stocks
- buy the dip
- stock picks
- watchlist
Companies and tickers mentioned
- GFI
- NEM
- B
- AEM
- Gold Fields
- Newmont
- BHP Group
- Agnico Eagle Mines
Watch the episode
Watch “Gold Miner Stocks Plunge: Buy the Dip” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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