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Three S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) mining shares just had their outlooks cut by leading brokers.
All three have a primary focus on different metals.
Namely gold, lithium and iron ore.
Yet the brokers expect all three could face some headwinds in the year ahead.
Which stocks are we on about?
Read on!
(Broker data courtesy of The Australian.)
Three ASX 200 mining shares with reduced outlooks
Gold miner Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST) is the first ASX 200 mining share to get hit with a broker downgrade.
The Northern Star share price is down 2.7% today, with shares trading for $13.05 apiece. Despite coming under selling pressure since late April, shares in the ASX 200 gold miner remain up 4% over a year. Northern Star shares also trade on a fully franked trailing dividend yield of 2.3%.
Now Barrenjoey has reduced its outlook for the big Aussie gold miner, cutting it to a neutral rating. However, with a $14.50 price target, the broker still foresees a potential upside of more than 11% from current levels.
This brings us to the second ASX 200 mining share to be downgraded by a broker: iron ore giant Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG).
The Fortescue share price is down 1.5% today at $21.33 a share. That sees the share price just about flat over the past 12 months, with the share price now having tumbled more than 27% in 2024. That pressure has largely come amid a big retrace in iron ore prices. The industrial metal kicked off 2024 trading above US$140 per tonne. Today, that same tonne is trading for around US$103.
With dividends holding up and the share price dropping, Fortescue shares trade on a juicy, fully franked trailing dividend yield of 9.8%.
Despite the big year-to-date fall, Barrenjoey believes the iron ore miner could continue to edge lower. The broker cut Fortescue’s share to an underweight rating with a $21.00 price target, about 1.5% below the current level.
Liontown Resources Ltd (ASX: LTR) rounds off the list of ASX 200 mining shares getting socked with a broker downgrade.
Shares in the lithium miner are taking a beating today, down 4.8% at 86 cents apiece. That sees the Liontown share price down a painful 70% since this time last year.
And Barrenjoey isn’t forecasting any big turnaround in the year ahead. The broker cut Liontown shares to an underweight rating.