Newmont adjusts to lower gold prices

Article Excerpt

NEWMONT MINING CORP. $31 (New York symbol NEM; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 497.7 million; Market cap: $15.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.8; Dividend yield: 3.2%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.newmont.com) has written down the value of its gold inventories, as well as two of its gold mines in Australia, by $1.8 billion. That’s because gold prices have dropped 21%, from around $1,800 an ounce in October 2012 to $1,420 today. The company links its dividend to gold prices, so it has also cut the quarterly payout by 28.6%, to $0.25 a share from $0.35. The new annual rate of $1.00 yields 3.2%. Newmont is still a hold. hold…