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Kinross (KGC) Shares Up 71% in 6 Months: What's Driving It?

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Kinross Gold Corporation’s (KGC - Free Report) shares have significantly outperformed the industry. The stock has rallied 70.7% in the past six months compared with the industry’s 38.7% rise.



The company has a market cap of around $9.6 billion. Average volume of shares traded in the past three months was nearly 19,255.1K. The company has expected earnings per share growth rate of 55.9% 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 share price performance.

Kinross is making steady progress in advancing major projects that provide it with 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 is expected to increase throughput capacity to 21,000 and 24,000 tons per day by the end of 2021 and mid-2023, respectively.

Further, gold has been the bright spot this year as fears over the coronavirus pandemic made it the most attractive safe-haven asset. Gold prices gained around 13% in the second quarter — the highest quarterly percentage increase in more than four years.

Notably, gold crossed the $1,800 mark on Jun 30 and hit a high of $1,804 an ounce. Global uncertainty along with the coronavirus pandemic, renewed U.S.-China tensions and the civil unrest in the United States are contributing to the rally.

Zacks Rank & Key Picks

Kinross currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the basic materials space include Sandstorm Gold Ltd. (SAND - Free Report) , Harmony Gold Mining Company Limited (HMY - Free Report) and Royal Gold, Inc. (RGLD - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Sandstorm Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 55.6% for 2020. The company’s shares have surged 71.3% in the past year.

Harmony Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 264.3% for fiscal 2020. Its shares have returned 145.1% in the past year.

Royal Gold has an expected earnings growth rate of 66.2% for fiscal 2020. The company’s shares have gained 15.1% in the past year.

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