Silver Stocks: The Baby Golds?

With all the concerns about the economy recently, many investors have turned to gold, driving up the price per ounce and the price of gold mining stocks. Over the last few days, the price of silver has been moving up. Maybe its time to see if there are any shining opportunities in the silver mining and production industry. All of these stocks have market caps over $900 million.

Silver Wheaton Corp. (SLW) is a Vancouver, British Columbia based silver production company, that trades on the New York Stock Exchange, which gets its silver from Mexico Sweden, and Peru. This $2.75 billion market cap company has a P/E of 31.61 and a PEG of 4.4.

Silver Standard Resources Inc. (SSRI) another Vancouver based company, which trades on NASDAQ, that buys, explores for, develops, and mines for silver in Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and the United States. The company has a market cap of slightly over $2 billion. Earnings have been negative.

Pan American Silver Corp. (PAAS), which trades on NASDAQ, explores for and mines for silver, copper, zinc, lead, and gold in Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia, United States and Argentina. The company has a market cap of $2 billion, and the stock has a P/E of 24.01, with a PEG of 0.95.

Apex Silver Mines Ltd. (SIL) is based in the Cayman Islands and explores and develops silver mining properties in Bolivia, Peru, Argentina, and Mexico. The company has a market cap of $1 billion and earnings have been negative.

Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. (CDE) is a mining company that has been around since 1928 and mines for silver, gold, lead, and zinc all over the world. The P/E is 15.78 and the PEG is 0.81. It's market cap is almost $1 billion.

Hecla Mining Co. (HL) is another old line mining company that has been around since 1891. They mine for silver, gold, lead, and zinc in Idaho, Alaska, Venezuela, and Mexico. Their P/E is 17.75 and the market cap is about $950 million.

Author does not own any of the above.

By Fred Fuld at Stockerblog.com

Silver nugget picture courtesy of the U.S. Government.