Wall Street regularly makes promises - and breaks them just as often. However, when Goldcorp (NYSE:GG) pledges a forward growth trajectory of epic proportions, I believe we have ample reason to anticipate a precious promise kept.
Goldcorp delivered precisely the sort of dazzling fourth-quarter earnings performance that I offered as one of five looming catalysts for gold stocks earlier this month. While the market continues to process a wave of similarly stellar results from mid-tier titans Agnico-Eagle Mines (NYSE:AEM) and Yamana Gold (NYSE:AUY), I encourage investors to take time for a double-take with Goldcorp's latest results.
Goldcorp churned up 689,600 ounces of gold during the fourth quarter of 2010. Thanks to a byproduct cash cost of just $164 per ounce that continues to set the standard among major producers, the miner's immense cash flow of $646.1 million for the period equates to $937 for every single ounce of gold produced!
The revenue statistics are sweeter still, with a 70% increase to $1.32 billion, which represents a phenomenal $1,944 for every gold ounce sold. How is that possible, you may ask, when the company's average realized gold price for the period was $1,378 per ounce? Byproduct credits, primarily for copper and silver production, are providing substantial benefit to miners' cost and cash flow structures, now that prices for these metals have themselves rocketed higher. Those byproduct credits, along with gold's relentless ascent, carried Goldcorp's fourth-quarter margin to $1,214 per ounce.
To the delight of silver stream holder Silver Wheaton (NYSE: SLW), Goldcorp's newly ramped-up Penasquito mine yielded 4.6 million ounces of silver during the fourth quarter.
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