Gold Stocks…. now Income Stocks – Dividend boost of 50%

Posted by Martin Mittelstaedt - GlobeandMail.com

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Gold producers reward investors with dividend boosts

Gold companies have seldom delivered much pizzazz for investors in the dividend department, but it looks like that is starting to change.

Buoyed by high prices for the yellow metal, Barrick (ABX-T42.260.260.62%), the world’s No. 1 miner of the precious metal, announced on Thursday that it is raising its dividend by 20 per cent to 12 cents (U.S.) quarterly. Just a day earlier, rival gold giant Newmont Mining Corp. did the same thing, raising its payout a whopping 50 per cent to 15 cents a quarter.

Kinross Gold Corp., another major producer, will be reporting earnings next week, and with two of its competitors sending fatter cheques to shareholders, it too will be in the spotlight over its payout intentions.

The focus on dividends is a big change for gold stocks, which previously would never have been mistaken as being in same staid class of regular payers like banks and utilities.

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