Gold Digger: Northern Star’s share price down 30pc for FY21, despite posting +$1bn profit

Gold bugs would be breathing a sigh of relief this week as the price stabilises just shy of $US1,800/oz ($2,463/oz Aussie) thanks to Monday’s healthy 1.5% gain.

While there are plenty of other red hot sectors attracting investor dollars right now, the gold price itself has actually remained reasonably steady since mid-June — chaotic flash crash aside.

Its reporting season, so we know prices over the past year like this — ☝ — mean healthy profits for ASX listed miners. For investors, the dividends are flowing.

Africa gold miner Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) saw a 48% rise in net profit after tax (NPAT) to $139.4 million in FY2021 and 11% increase in EBITDA to $303.1m.

It will see Perseus, which operates the Yaoure, Sissingue and Edikan gold mines, pay a maiden dividend of 1.5c per share to shareholders.

WA gold miner Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) reported a record profit for FY21 of $126.8m and will pay a full franked 2.5c per share dividend.

And after almost a year as a merged entity with Saracen, Northern Star (ASX:NST) is on the way to a 2Mozpa production profile, a level that could see it challenge Newcrest (ASX:NCM) to the title of Australia’s biggest gold digger by 2026.

Northern Star sold ~1.6Moz of gold in 2020-21 at a record average price of $2277/oz, with prices having risen to record levels early in the financial year.

That generated a statutory NPAT of $1.03 billion.

They weren’t all winners — Gwalia gold mine owner St Barbara (ASX:SBM) ate a statutory loss of $177m after a 26% drop in underlying profit from $108m in FY20 to $81m in FY21.

It will still pay a 2c per share dividend.

Despite their solid FY21 results, the Ramelius and Northern Star share prices are down 21% and 30% respectively over the past 12 months.

Perseus notched up a small 7% gain.

It’s hard to argue with those experts who reckon gold stocks are cheap right now.

Winners & Losers

Here’s how ASX-listed gold & silver stocks are performing:

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