It hasn't been a lot of fun to own Coeur Mining (CDE 5.64%) stock this past week.
Shares of the gold miner (which also mines silver) fell 6.1% through 12:25 p.m. ET Thursday. This is only Couer's second straight day of declines, but the stock's on a downtrend, falling 24% since hitting its all-time high near $26 a share on Jan. 27.
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Gold and silver prices fall
What's ailing Coeur Mining stock? It's no great mystery: After hitting an all-time high of $5,419.80 per ounce on Jan. 28, gold prices plunged below $4,660 through Monday, according to data from TradingEconomics.com. Prices have recovered somewhat since, and stand at 4,868.30 currently.
The story on silver is similar -- but worse. Silver prices peaked at $116.58 per ounce on Jan. 28. By Monday, silver cost just $79.21. After a brief bounce higher, silver prices resumed falling, hitting $76.67 today.
It makes sense that when Coeur' stock in trade gets cheaper, so too would its stock price.
NYSE: CDE
Key Data Points
Is Coeur Mining stock a sell?
This is hardly news to Wall Street, though. Gold and silver prices are widely available, and the costs Coeur incurs to mine silver and gold are also well known. Wall Street analysts can easily do the math and forecast how much Coeur is likely to earn in a year.
And what do these analysts conclude?
Simply this: Coeur stock costs 30 times trailing earnings today, which sounds like a lot. But gold and silver prices are so much higher now than last year (even after their recent decline), that Coeur's forward P/E ratio is less than 10. With earnings forecast to rise 90% next year, Coeur stock has a PEG ratio of about 0.3.
Coeur stock looks like a buy to me.
