What happened?
The shine is off precious metals miner Goldcorp (GG), which has slashed its dividend. The company announced that, effective this April, it will pay its $0.02 distribution on a quarterly basis rather than at a monthly clip. This is tantamount to a dividend cut of 67%.
IMAGE SOURCE: GOLDCORP.
The announcement was made concurrent to the company's release of its Q4 and fiscal 2015 results. Both periods showed a significantly deeper net loss on a year-over-year basis.
Goldcorp's initial newly quarterly dividend will be paid on June 24 to shareholders of record as of June 16. At its current share price, it will yield 0.6%. That's well below the current average of stocks on the S&P 500 index, which stands at 2.2%.
Does it matter?
Goldcorp has been a pit of bad news lately. That latest set of results was surprising, and not in a good way, with the company reporting an unexpected quarterly adjusted net loss of $0.15 per share. On top of that, it sliced its forward guidance: It now projects 2.8 million to 3.1 million ounces in gold production for 2016, well under the 3.5 million ounces it produced last year.
Like many other commodities, gold has seen a notable decline in price lately. This has badly affected the broader precious metals mining industry. Witness the big red number posted by peer company Barrick Gold. For its Q4, Barrick Gold's net loss totaled a steep $2.6 billion ($2.25 per share).
Goldcorp's big slash in its dividend will help the company save some coin as the downturn starts to bite. But it's going to be taken as a desperate move, and one that eviscerates the dividend yield (which, to be honest, wasn't particularly worth writing home about to begin with).
This is a company reeling at the moment. And its stock will certainly suffer with this latest nugget of discouraging news.
