TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian gold producer Agnico Eagle Mines has recorded a 9.21% bump in its NYSE-listed stock price on Friday, testing new 12-month highs of $47.33 a share after reporting strong first-quarter earnings.
For the three months ended March 31, the Toronto-headquartered miner had reported adjusted net income of $25.7-million, or $0.12 a share, beating Wall Street analyst predictions of first-quarter earnings of only $0.02 a share by ten cents.
Revenues from mining operations were marginally higher at $490.5-million versus $483.6-million last year.
"The year was off to a good start with a more constructive gold price environment and continued strong operating performance from all of our mines. As a result of the strong operating results, we now expect to meet the top end of our production guidance for 2016", CEO Sean Boyd stated.
Agnico expected to meet the top end of its 2016 guidance at between 1.52-million to 1.56-million ounces of gold, after gold output rose to 411 336 oz in the quarter, up from 404 210 oz in the same period of 2015.
During the quarter, the company repaid about $89-million in debt, to reduce the outstanding amount as at March 31, to $923-million.