Gold Fields Ltd ADR

Nvidia shares rose after its board authorized an additional $150 billion under the company's existing share-repurchase program, increasing the total remaining amount authorized to $235 billion, with the AI chip leader expecting to complete the program through fiscal 2028. In the mining sector, Australia's Northern Star Resources Ltd. rejected a takeover approach from South African rival Gold Fields Ltd. that could have created the second-largest gold miner, saying the A$38.7 billion ($27.1 billion) cash-and-shares offer undervalued its business. Gold Fields shares fell as much as 16% on the proposal, while precious-metal miners also slid as gold and silver dropped, with Barrick Gold down 4% and Freeport-McMoRan down about 3.5%. Roblox was cut to underperform from hold at Jefferies, which said the stock's 30% rally since the gaming company's second-quarter results in July reflects an overly optimistic view of bookings for the next 12 months; the shares fell 5% and are down 43% so far this year. Nvidia also rolled out a new double-layered AI security system that it says would have prevented the recent high-profile breach of Hugging Face by OpenAI's models, and China may allow Alibaba and ByteDance to buy Nvidia's new RTX Pro 5500 chips.

Geely agreed to acquire a 30% stake in NIO's battery-swapping business in a deal valuing the unit at roughly $2.4B, sending NIO shares up 2%. Zhejiang Geely Holding Group will contribute its commercial-vehicle battery-swapping business and pay 640M yuan, or $95M, in cash, and the two companies are discussing Geely's adoption of NIO's battery-swapping technology for its passenger and commercial vehicles while opening the charging and swapping collaboration to other industry participants. Gold Fields shares plunged 13% after Northern Star Resources rejected its $27B takeover proposal, saying the offer materially undervalued the Australian gold miner. Gold Fields proposed acquiring Northern Star through a combination of 0.3125 Gold Fields shares and A$7.25 in cash for each Northern Star share, initially valuing the target at A$38.7B, a 22% premium to its Sept. 11 closing price, though based on Gold Fields' Sept. 25 closing price the implied value had fallen to A$36.1B. Northern Star's board unanimously rejected the proposal, calling it highly opportunistic. Kodiak Sciences shares rose 7% ahead of the company's planned release of topline results from the DAYBREAK Phase 3 study evaluating Zenkuda, also known as tarcocimab tedromer, and KSI-501, also known as tabirafusp alfa tedromer, in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration, with results scheduled to be reported today at 8:30 AM Eastern Time.

Shares in Australia's Northern Star Resources rose more than 9% on Monday after the gold miner rejected a $27B takeover proposal from South Africa's Gold Fields. Gold Fields proposed acquiring 100% of Northern Star through a combination of shares and cash, offering 0.3125 Gold Fields shares and 7.25 Australian dollars in cash for each Northern Star share, according to a Northern Star statement. The proposal, received Sept. 14, initially valued Northern Star at A$38.7B, or $27.15B, representing a 22% premium to its closing price on Sept. 11, though based on Gold Fields' closing share price on Friday, Sept. 25, the implied value had fallen to A$36.1B. Northern Star said its board unanimously rejected the proposal, adding it materially undervalues the company and was highly opportunistic. Northern Star Chairman Michael Chaney said Gold Fields has sought to acquire one of the world's premier gold portfolios at a price that falls well short of what the Board considers to be its fundamental value and at a highly opportunistic time.

The fair value estimate for Gold Fields has been lowered from ZAR914.75 to ZAR717.63, reflecting updated gold and silver price assumptions, margin pressure, and revised P/E multiples. JPMorgan cut its price target to US$55 from US$75 but maintained an Overweight rating, while RBC Capital trimmed its target to US$49 from US$50 with an Outperform rating, noting near-record margins for gold producers. Scotiabank lowered its target to US$52 from US$60 with a Sector Perform rating after revising gold and silver price forecasts for 2026 and 2027. Forecast revenue growth for Gold Fields shifted from 13.40% to 11.81%, the profit margin assumption eased from 35.01% to 34.89%, the future P/E multiple was adjusted from 18.71x to 15.45x, and the discount rate moved from 19.26% to 19.40%.

Gold Fields' American Depositary Receipts sank by over 10% on Monday after Bloomberg reported that Ghana's government is considering shifting control of the Tarkwa mine, the company's largest operation, away from Gold Fields. Citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter, Bloomberg said authorities are considering handing control to local businesses after the current five leases expire in April 2027. Gold Fields holds a 90% stake in the subsidiary that leases Tarkwa, and the company said it has submitted an early application to renew the leases and is in discussions with government representatives on renewal terms. Ghana, Africa's largest gold producer, recently raised the royalty rate on the metal to 12% from 5% as part of efforts to increase its share of mining revenue.