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Kinross (KGC) Stock Up 29% in 3 Months: What's Driving It?

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Kinross Gold Corporation’s (KGC - Free Report) shares are outperforming the industry. The stock has gained 29.1% in the past three months compared with the industry’s 22.8% rise.

The company has a market cap of $10.6 billion. Average volume of shares traded in the past three months was nearly 17,808.2K. The company has expected earnings per share growth rate of 99.2% for 2020.

Let’s analyze the factors that are driving the stock.

Driving Factors

Focus on major growth projects and higher gold prices are contributing to the company’s price performance.

Kinross is making steady progress in advancing major projects that have a strong growth profile. The company is likely to gain from organic development projects and opportunities in the Americas. Paracatu is one of its largest producing mines of the company that is operating at a low cost of production and delivering strong output.

Moreover, the Gilmore project at Fort Knox is a low-cost brownfield expansion with low-risk that is likely to extend mine life to 2030. Kinross is also expected to gain from strong production at Tasiast. The Tasiast 24k project remains on schedule and is expected to increase throughput capacity to 21,000 tons per day by the end of 2021.

Further, gold has been the bright spot this year as mounting fears over the coronavirus pandemic made it the most attractive safe-haven asset. A slump in crude oil prices, low interest rate environment and geopolitical tensions also triggered demand for gold.  

Gold prices crossed the $1,800-an ounce mark in June 2020 and also surged past the $1,900 an ounce mark in July. Prices also crossed the $2,000-an ounce level earlier this month for the first time, courtesy of strong safe-haven demand. Meanwhile, Kinross’ average realized price of gold rose 31% year over year to $1,712 per ounce in the second quarter and boosted margins. Higher gold prices are expected to continue driving earnings amid market volatility and economic uncertainties.

Zacks Rank & Other Key Picks

Kinross currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Some other top-ranked stocks in the basic materials space include Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD - Free Report) , Eldorado Gold Corporation (EGO - Free Report) and Yamana Gold Inc. , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 (Strong Buy) Rank stocks here.

Royal Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 47.2% for 2020. The company’s shares have inched up 1.7% in the past year.

Eldorado Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 2,331.3% for 2020. Its shares have returned 18.6% in the past year.

Yamana has an expected earnings growth rate of 80% for 2020. The company’s shares have soared 62.9% in the past year.

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