BHP Billiton (#BLT) - "Serious" incident at Samarco, update to follow
- 2015-11-06 00:07:10
UK 06:04 Wednesday, 30 September 2026
Breaking news and expert analysis on fast-moving AIM and LSE listed shares
It has been a torrid time of late for mining companies in light of low commodity prices, and even the largest ones have struggled. A number of commodities have been showing signs of bottoming out or even having a bit of a bounce though, and with some of these big companies close to their lowest levels since the 2008 crash, I can see good value in some of them. Top of that list would be BHP Billiton (BLT), which is a company that I have covered before at higher levels and still see as a good longterm buy, even more so at the current share price of around 1041p.
On Tuesday, Chris Bailey offered some excellent analysis of BHP Billiton’s (BLT) results. I won’t attempt to steal Chris’ thunder, but one point he made has stuck with me. In its own words BHP Billiton’s board is “resolute” to pay what is now a 7.9% dividend. This is an enormous yield for such a large stock and if the directors follow through with this pledge, the current £10.55p share price is surely a gimme. The question is will the company pay this generous sum?
Who ever said that large cap equities could not be exciting? A quick glance at the share price graph of the world’s largest miner BHP Billiton (BLT) shows that even a miner with lowest quartile production costs, rising volumes, low debt and a progressive high single digit dividend yield can still struggle against the might of negative investor sentiment towards the space.
If there is one event that should fill investors with glee it is a spin-off. Here’s the theory: a big, complex company decides to allow part of their business to separately list which in turn allows investors to appraise and the market to value the now two separated businesses independently. And guess what? Sometimes 2+2 =5 and sometimes 2+2=3. In my experience it rarely leaves the combined market cap unchanged. This is because either the spin-off is an underappreciated diamond or it is a piece of relative rubbish that investors should run a mile from and dump in the first few weeks of spun-out ownership.
Miners have had a very bad time of late, but that can also lead to some long term bargains like BHP Billiton (BLT) cropping up.
The large mining stocks have in general been hammered over the past month or so, but I see that as a great opportunity to buy in cheap. One of my current favourites has to be BHP Billiton (BLT), which has seen more than 15% wiped off of its share price during that period.
I’ve been watching BHP Billiton (BLT) closely for some time now with a view to trading it. It is currently at close to a level where it looks a very tempting short, even more so if we were to see another little rise back to the 1950p to 2000p area.
