Metals equity analysts at Raymond James raised their Increased our gold and silver price estimates on Monday, citing “the strong year-to-date performance, interest rates starting to decline, cost structures continuing to increase (based on embedded inflation and our expectation that cut-off grades and reserve/resource pricing will likely be adjusted to capitalize on higher prices) and continued geopolitical instability.”
Their full-year gold price projection for 2024 rose to US$2,342 per ounce from US$2,253 previously. Their 2025 and long-term forecasts rose to US$2,500 and US$2,200, respectively, from US$2,100 and US$1,900.
For silver, the firm’s 2024 projection rose by 30 US cents to US$27.36 per ounce. Their 2025 and long-term estimates are US$29 and US$26, rising from US$25 and US$23.
“We have adjusted our gold:silver price ratio to 86 times for 2024 (previously, 84 times), 86 times for 2025 (previously, 84 times), and 85 times on a long-term basis (previously, 83 times),” they said. “As a result of the gold and silver price forecast increases we are broadly raising price targets across the precious metals producers under coverage (see below for details).
“In precious metals, we prefer AEM amongst the senior gold producers for its lower jurisdictional risk profile and growing pipeline of brownfield/greenfield development opportunities. Among intermediate producers, we favour OGC as we expect production to increase starting in the current quarter with growth over the next few years. We also favour CXB with the Valentine project progressing well and upside opportunities at the project. We prefer WPM amongst the royalty companies and SKE and MAU in the gold developer space.”
Analyst Craig Stanley made a pair of rating changes in response to their price deck update:
He lowered Lundin Gold Inc. to “market perform” from “outperform” in response to the stock price doubling since he initiated coverage in late January. His target rose to $29, exceeding the $28.19 average on the Street, from $25.
Mr. Stanley downgraded Meridian Mining UK Societas to “outperform” from “strong buy” to “in-line with non-financed, development stage companies that we have a positive bias.” His target remains $1.50, below the $1.75 average.