What's Up with Gold: Plus, the Largest Crystalline Gold Nugget in the World

The Crown Jewel Gold Nugget

A couple weeks ago, I was at the Ironstone Vineyards in Murphys, California, where they have a gold rush museum. One of the highlights of the museum is 'The Crown Jewel', also known as the Kautz Crystalline Gold nugget, the largest crystalline gold nugget in the world, a very rare form of gold. This nugget weighs 44 pounds. If you are ever in the California Gold Country, you should certainly check it out.

So what has been happening with gold lately? Not much if you look at the price of gold over the twelve months. The SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) have dropped 6.16% over the last year, whereas the S&P 500 is up about 15% over the same time frame.

If you are a contrarian and think that now be the time to acquire some gold, you may want to consider gold mining stocks, as there are almost two dozen that pay dividends, according to the free list of high yield gold and silver stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Almost ten of these stocks have yields in excess of 2%.

Barrick Gold (ABX) trades at 14 times future earnings, and pays a yield of 1.2%. The company, based in Ontario, Canada, has mines in North America, South America, Africa, and Australia.

Newmont Mining (NEM) has mines in Australia, New Zealand, North and South America, and Africa. It trades at 16.5 times forward earnings and pays a dividend rate of 0.4%, payable quarterly.

Silver Wheaton (SLW) pays a yield of 1.3%, payable quarterly.

For a free list of high yield gold and silver stocks go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Stocks Going Ex Dividend the Fifth Week of May

  Here is our latest update on the stock trading technique called 'Buying Dividends'. This is the process of buying stocks before the ex dividend date and selling the stock shortly after the ex date at about the same price, yet still being entitled to the dividend. This technique generally works only in bull markets. In flat or choppy markets, you have to be extremely careful, and may need to avoid the technique during those times.

In order to be entitled to the dividend, you have to buy the stock before the ex-dividend date, and you can't sell the stock until after the ex date. The actual dividend may not be paid for another few weeks. WallStreetNewsNetwork.com has compiled a downloadable and sortable list of the stocks going ex dividend during the next week or two. The list contains many dividend paying companies, all with market caps over $500 million, and yields over 2%. Here are a few examples showing the stock symbol, the ex-dividend date, and the yield.

AFLAC Inc. (AFSD) 5/29/2013 5.2%

Bank of Hawaii (BOH) 5/29/2013 3.8%

Barrick Gold (ABX) 5/29/2013 4.3%

Brookfield Properties (BPO) 5/29/2013 3.1%

Cherokee Inc. (CHKE) 5/29/2013 3.1%

Comcast Corporation (CCV) 5/29/2013 4.9%

Northeast Utilities (NU) 5/29/2013 3.3%

Prudential Financial, Inc. (PJH) 5/29/2013 5.6%

Empire District Electric (EDE) 5/30/2013 4.4%

FutureFuel Corp. (FF) 5/30/2013 3.6%

Lockheed Martin (LMT) 5/30/2013 4.7%

The additional ex-dividend stocks can be found at wsnn.com. (If you have been to the website before, and the latest link doesn't show up, you may have to empty your cache.) If you like dividend stocks, you should check out the high yield utility stocks and the Monthly Dividend Stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com or WSNN.com.

Dividend definitions:

Declaration date: the day that the company declares that there is going to be an upcoming dividend.

Ex-dividend date: the day on which if you buy the stock, you would not be entitled to that particular dividend; or the first day on which a shareholder can sell the shares and still be entitled to the dividend.

Monthly Dividend Stock List
Record date: the day when you must be on the company's books as a shareholder to receive the dividend. The ex-dividend date is normally set for stocks two business days before the record date.

Payment date: the day on which the dividend payment is actually made, which can be as long at two months after the ex date.

Book now available: Buying Dividends Revised and Updated
Don't forget to reconfirm the ex-dividend date with the company before implementing this technique.

Disclosure: Author did not own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com

Gold Stocks are Down, Gold and Yields are Up, Time to Buy the Stocks?

Did you know that a couple years ago that there were only nine gold mining stocks with yields of 1% or more? Now there are twice that number with ten gold stocks with yields above 2%. Look at the price of gold versus gold stocks.

Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. (FCX) is a perfect example from the recently updated list of high yield gold mining stocks at WallStreetNewsNetwork.com. Since the beginning of 2011, the stock has dropped about 40%. Because of the drop in the stock price and an increase in the dividend back in April from 25 cents per quarter to31.3 cents, the yield has gone for 1.4% to 3.6%. Yet during that same time frame, the price of gold has increased by approximately 15%. Stock down 40%, gold up 15%. Sounds like it might be worth taking a closer look.

Freeport trades at 11 times trailing earnings and 7.5 times forward earnings. It sports a golden yield of 3.6%, and pays its dividend quarterly. Earnings tanked by 48% for the latest quarter, with revenues dropping 23%.

Yamana Gold Inc. (AUY) is another gold stock that pays a decent dividend quarterly. The yield is 1.5%. The stock has a current price to earnings ratio of 20 and a forward PE of 11. The company was upgraded last month by HSBC Securities from Neutral to Overweight. Net earnings for the first quarter were $170.0 million or $0.23 per share on a basic and diluted basis which is an increase of 15% compared with net earnings of $148.2 million or basic and diluted earnings per share of $0.20 for the same quarter last year.

A couple of high yield gold stocks the pay semi-annually include Kinross Gold Corporation (KGC), sporting a yield of 2.1%, and Barrick Gold Corporation (ABX), yielding 2.4%.

For a free list of over twenty high yield gold mining stocks, which you can download and sort, go to WallStreetNewsNetwork.com.

Disclosure: Author didn't own any of the above at the time the article was written.

By Stockerblog.com