You Need to Own One of These 3 Big Gold Stocks

Gold continues to surge as investors run for safety. However, investors need to not only look at the underlying commodity -- owned mainly through ETF (NYSE: GLD) -- but also need to start looking at the gold producers.

Gold miners have underperformed the commodity so far this year. This is illustrated by the 5% YTD move down in ETF Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF (NYSE: GDX), versus the 16% upside move in the GLD.

Here is how the three big U.S. traded gold miners stack up.

• Barrick Gold Corporation (NYSE: ABX):
  
  Stock Price: $48.98
  
  Market Cap: $49 billion
  
  Estimated 2011 Sales: $13.57 billion
  
  Estimated 2011 EPS: $4.62
  
  Forward P/E = 10.6x
  
  Gold Reserves: 139.8 million proven and probable gold reserves (12/31/10)
  
  Gold Value Based on Current Price: $231.2 billion
  
  
• Newmont Mining (NYSE: NEM)
  
  Stock Price: $56.55
  
  Market Cap: $28 billion
  
  Estimated 2011 Sales: $10.21 billion
  
  Estimated 2011 EPS: $4.35
  
  Forward P/E = 13x
  
  Gold Reserves: 93.5 million ounces proven and probable gold reserves (12/31/10)
  
  Gold Value Based on Current Price: $154.65 billion
  
  
• Goldcorp Inc. (NYSE: GG)
  
  Stock Price: $48.88
  
  Market Cap: $39.44 billion
  
  Estimated 2011 Sales: $5.64 billion
  
  Estimated 2011 EPS: $2.30
  
  Forward P/E = 21.2x
  
  Gold Reserves: 60.05 million ounces proven and probable gold reserve (12/31/10)
  
  Gold Value Based on Current Price: $99.3 billion

You can own them all through Market Vectors Gold Miners ETF, as they make up the top three holdings of the fund.

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