Avino Silver & Gold Mines Ltd. ASM reported earnings per share of 4 cents for third-quarter 2024, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate for earnings of 2 cents. ASM had reported earnings of 1 cent in the third quarter of 2023. The solid improvement in earnings was aided by higher metal prices and lower costs.
Including one-time items, the company reported earnings per share of 1 cent against the loss of 1 cent per share incurred in the year-ago quarter.
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ASM’s Revenues Gain Y/Y On Higher Prices
Avino Silver’s revenues rose 19% year over year to $14.6 million, attributed to higher average realized metal prices that offset the impact of lower sales volumes. The top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $14.8 million.
Payable silver equivalent ounces sold were down 3% year over year to 525,003.
Realized silver prices were $29.17 per ounce, up 25.4% year over year. Average realized gold prices were $2,445 per ounce, 27% higher than the year-ago quarter. Average realized copper prices increased 9.3% year over year to $9154 per ton.
Avino Silver Witnesses Improvement in Profits
The cost of sales decreased 10.5% to around $9 million, which was attributed to the depreciation of the Mexican peso compared with the U.S dollar.
Avino Silver reported a mine-operating income of $5.7 million, a 141% jump from $2.4 million in the year-ago quarter on higher sales and lower costs.
The company recorded cash costs of $14.94 per silver equivalent payable ounce, a 12% drop from $16.90 in the year-ago quarter. Consolidated all-in sustaining costs were $22.06 per silver payable equivalent ounce compared with $22.61 in the third quarter of 2023.
General and administrative expenses were $1.46 million, up 13.7% from the third quarter of 2023 due to higher salaries and benefits, owing to increased profit-sharing provisions for employees in Mexico from improved financial performance.
EBITDA surged 442% year over year to $3.8 million.
ASM’s Cash Position
The company generated $4.1 million of cash from operating activities in the third quarter against an outflow of $0.08 million in the year-ago quarter. Avino Silver ended the quarter with $7.8 million of cash in hand, higher than $1.9 million held at the end of the third quarter of 2023.
ASM’s Silver Equivalent Production Increases Y/Y
Avino Silver reported consolidation production of 670,887 silver equivalent ounces, up 13% year over year. The increase was driven by overall grade increases, coupled with mill performance and availability.
ASM produced 281,831 ounces of silver, 1,624 ounces of gold and 1,771,250 pounds of copper in the July-September period. While silver and copper production increased 19% and 55% respectively, gold output was down 22% from the year-ago comparable period.
During the third quarter, Avino Silver analyzed the results of processed La Preciosa historical stockpile material as part of a sampling program. Initial recoveries from the lower-grade material exceeded expectations, suggesting potential upside.
La Preciosa hosts one of the largest undeveloped primary silver resources in Mexico. It is located near the current Avino Mine production operations, which has a mill processing facility and all the necessary infrastructure to enable mineral processing from La Preciosa.
On Jan. 9, 2024, the company signed a long-term land-use agreement with a local community for the development of La Preciosa in Durango, Mexico. ASM is currently in the final stages for seeking approval to move forward with underground development at La Preciosa.
Avino Silver Maintains Production Guidance for 2024
Production is expected between 2.5 million and 2.8 million silver equivalent ounces in 2024.
ASM Stock’s Price Performance & Zacks Rank
Shares of the company have gained 132.2% over the past year compared with the industry’s 48.4% growth.
Zacks Investment Research
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Avino Silver currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
How Did ASM’s Peers Fare in Q3?
Fortuna Mining Corp. FSM reported third-quarter 2024 adjusted earnings per share of 16 cents, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 11 cents. The bottom-line figure marked a 60% improvement from the year-ago quarter, driven by higher gold and silver prices, which offset lower sales volumes.
Fortuna Mining’s revenues improved 13% year over year to $275 million, as higher realized gold and silver prices partially offset the decline in gold sales volume. Realized gold price was $2,490 per ounce, 29% higher than $1,925 per ounce in the year-ago quarter. Realized silver prices rose 24% year over year to $29.00 per ounce.
First Majestic Silver AG posted a third-quarter loss of 3 cents per share, which missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings of 9 cents per share. The company reported a loss of 2 cents per share in the second quarter of 2023.
Total production was 5.5 million silver equivalent ounces, which consisted of around 1.968 million silver ounces and 41,761 gold ounces. This was 13% lower than the year-ago quarter mainly due to lower production at San Dimas. AG’s quarterly revenues rose 10% year over year to $146 million as a 33% increase in average realized silver price offset lower payable sales volumes.
Pan American Silver Corp. PAAS reported adjusted earnings per share of 32 cents for the third quarter, which beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 21 cents. PAAS had posted adjusted earnings per share of 1 cent in the year-ago quarter.
Including one-time items, Pan American Silver reported earnings of 16 cents per share against the year-ago quarter’s loss of 5 cents per share.
PAAS’ revenues improved 16% year over year to $716 million. The top line missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $741 million. Silver production was down 4% year over year to around 5.47 million ounces. Gold output dipped 8% to 225,000 ounces.
The average realized silver price increased 27.7% year over year to $29.52 per ounce. The average realized gold price increased 28.4% year over year to $2,475 per ounce.
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