Gold miners are hiking their dividends in a bid to lure investors who have instead flooded into exchange traded funds that follow the price of bullion, according to a report Monday.
ETFs that track gold bullion and miner stocks have been trending in different directions lately. [Gold and Miner ETFs Part Ways]
SPDR Gold Shares (NYSEArca: GLD) is up nearly 8% this year, while the Dow Jones U.S. Gold Mining Index is down 12%, according to The Wall Street Journal. The gold ETF has more than doubled over the past five years, while gold mining shares up a “paltry” 12%, the newspaper reported Monday.
“In bull markets for gold, mining stocks historically have outperformed the gold price, as swarms of stock investors piled in,” according to report. “But the creation of gold ETFs opened up a whole new investing option, sucking demand from gold-mining shares.”
Miners are trying to fight this trend by paying out a total $2 billion in dividends this year, according to the article.