#7 - VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA:GDX)
The VanEck Gold Miners ETF (NYSEARCA: GDX) is an ideal way for investors to get exposure to gold mining stocks without having to choose a particular company or two.
This is one of the largest gold ETFs, with about $16.5 billion of assets under management as of October 2024. The stock holds the stock of 60 gold mining companies, including four of the five mining stocks listed above.
The top five holdings in the fund make up nearly 45% of the fund’s assets. Since these are among the top mining stocks, when the big players are doing well, the fund does well. Of course, the opposite is true as well, which is why you may be better off investing in individual mining stocks.
The GDX fund is up about 36% in 2024. And in addition to getting exposure to some of the world’s top gold mining stocks, you get an attractive expense ratio of 0.51%.
About VanEck Gold Miners ETF
The Fund seeks to match as closely as possible the price and yield performance of the AMEX Gold Miners Index. The Fund, utilizing a passive or indexing investment approach, attempts to approximate the investment performance of the Index by investing in a portfolio of stocks that generally replicate the Index.
- Current Price
- $41.56
- Consensus Rating
- Moderate Buy
- Ratings Breakdown
- 3 Buy Ratings, 9 Hold Ratings, 0 Sell Ratings.
- Consensus Price Target
- $44.65 (7.4% Upside)
Even with gold's stellar performance in 2024, many investors will view gold as the broken clock. That is, just as a broken clock tells the correct time twice a day, if you own gold, you'll get a good bounce now and again. But the metal tends to go through long periods of underperforming the market.
Still, it all depends on where you stick the goalposts. Since September 2015, the spot price of gold is up about 161%. That's underperformed the S&P 500, which is up about 202% over the same period. A 25% increase is not insignificant, but it also shows that gold is more than holding its own as an asset class, particularly since 2020.
As this presentation shows, the reasons for owning gold today have never been clearer. But for many investors, that may not be enough reason to get involved, particularly when there's concern that they could be buying at the top.
However, if you view gold as prudent insurance against runaway government spending, a devalued currency, and the possibility of a resurgence in inflation, there's never a bad time to allocate a small percentage of your portfolio to gold and gold stocks.
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