Gold Fields and Civitas Resources have been highlighted as Zacks Bull and Bear of the Day

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – September 25, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares Gold Fields Ltd. GFI as the Bull of the Day and Civitas Resources, Inc. CIVI as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on NVIDIA Corp. NVDA and Micron Technology, Inc. MU.

Here is a synopsis of all four stocks:

Bull of the Day:

Gold Fields Ltd. is benefiting from record gold prices. This Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) is expected to grow earnings by 107.6% this year.

Gold Fields is one of the world's largest gold producers with a market cap of $37.4 billion. Headquartered in South Africa, it has 10 mines and projects in Australia, Canada, Chile, Peru, and South Africa.

Gold Fields Reports a Bullish H1 2025

On Aug 22, 2025, Gold Fields reported its first half 2025 results, which ended on June 30, 2025.

Attributable production was up 24% to 1,136koz. Salares Norte is on track to achieve commercial production levels during Q3 2025 and steady state throughput in Q4 2025, as planned.

All-in sustaining costs (AISC) were US$1,682/oz while all-in costs (AIC) were US$1,957.

Adjusted free cash flow jumped to $952 million from an outflow of $58 million in H1 2024.

Gold Fields expects costs to decrease in H2 2025.

GFI on Track to Meet Full Year Guidance

In Feb 2025, Gold Fields provided full year guidance. In August, the company said it was on track for that guidance. Attributable gold-equivalent production is expected to be between 2.250Moz to 2.450Moz.

AISC is expected to be between US$1,500/oz and $1650/oz. While AIC is expected in the range of US$1,780/oz to $1,930/oz.

Reminder, gold is trading near $3800/oz in Sep 2025.

Analysts Raise Gold Fields Full Year Earnings Estimates

In the last month, one earnings estimate has been raised for both 2025 and 2026 but that's enough to get the coveted Strong Buy rank.

The 2025 Zacks Consensus has jumped to $2.74 from $2.56 in the last 30 days. That's earnings growth of 107.6% as the company made just $1.32 last year.

The growth is expected to continue in 2026. The Zacks Consensus has risen to $3.39 from $3.15 in the last month. That's another 23.7% earnings growth.

With gold at new highs, the analysts are having a hard time keeping up.

Gold Fields Dividend Yields 1.5%

Gold Fields' dividend policy is to pay 30% to 45% of normalized earnings. In the first half of 2025, the interim dividend, which was paid on Sep 15, 2025, was at 34%.

Shares of GFI Soar in 2025

Gold Fields shares have soared more than the Gold ETF this year. Yet gold stocks remain cheap on a fundamental basis.

Gold Fields has a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of 15.3. A P/E of 15 or under usually indicates value.

It also has a PEG ratio, which is the P/E divided by growth, of just 0.4. A PEG ratio under 1.0 can signal a company has both growth and value. That's a rare combination.

With gold hitting new highs in 2025, investors should keep Gold Fields on their short list.

Bear of the Day:

Civitas Resources, Inc. is facing a bear market in oil in 2025. This Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) has seen falling earnings for the last 2 years.

Civitas Resources is an independent oil and natural gas producer with assets in the Denver-Julesburg (DJ) and Permian basins in Texas and New Mexico. It has a market cap of $3 billion.

Civitas Reinstates Its Capital Return Program

On Aug 6, 2025, Civitas announced that its Board of Directors authorized reinstating a capital allocation strategy of both returning capital to shareholders and ongoing debt reduction.

The company already pays a $2.00 per share annual base dividend. Future free cash flow after paying the base dividend is expected to be allocated equally to share repurchases and debt reduction each year.

The Board increased the company's share repurchase authorization to $750 million, which represented about 28% of Civitas' current market cap.

It will start an accelerated share repurchase agreement (ASR) to repurchase $250 million of Civitas' equity.

Under the ASR it intends to have those purchases completed by the end of the third quarter of 2025. It will then have $500 million remaining in the share repurchase.

Civitas Lists Strategic Steps for Enhanced Return of Capital to Shareholders

With crude prices continuing to fall in 2025, Civitas has been hedging. Hedging is common in bear oil markets. It added 17 million barrels of oil hedges through the third quarter of 2026.

Civitas is now about 60% hedged on oil through the end of 2025 with a weighted average floor of $67 per barrel WTI.

It also reduced the original capital expenditure plan by $150 million to optimize 2025 free cash flow.

Cost cutting is also the name of the game. Civitas has implemented a $100 million cost optimization and efficiency project to improve margins.

It also accelerated deleveraging with non-core DJ Basin asset divestments totaling $435 million, well above the company's full-year target of $300 million.

These transactions are expected to close around the end of the third quarter of 2025 and will be allocated to debt reduction.

Analysts Cut Civitas Earnings Estimates for 2025 and 2026

After falling earnings in 2023 and 2024, the analysts are still bearish on Civitas in 2025 and 2026.

5 earnings estimates were cut in the last 60 days for 2025. This has pushed the Zacks Consensus down to $5.35 from $6.11. This is an earnings decline of 37% as Civitas made $8.49 last year.

2026 is expected to see further declines. 5 estimates have been cut in the last 2 months, which has pushed the Zacks Consensus down to $4.82 from $5.33. That is another 9.9% decline.

Shares of Civitas Give Up the Ukraine War Gains

Oil prices surged in 2022 during the start of the Ukraine War and so did shares of Civitas. But as oil prices have fallen the last few years, and earnings along with it, the shares have fallen as well.

It's now underperforming the S&P 500 over the last 5 years.

But Civitas is cheap. It now trades with a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of just 6.2. A P/E ratio under 10 is considered to be dirt cheap.

It's $2.00 base dividend is also yielding 6%.

However, given the bear market in oil, investors might want to wait for earnings to stabilize before buying an oil and natural gas producer like Civitas.

Additional content:

Micron or NVIDIA: Which AI Stock Looks More Attractive?

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a blessing in disguise for two prominent semiconductor stocks, NVIDIA Corp. and Micron Technology, Inc.. Both companies have posted strong quarterly performance recently, prompting investors to wonder which is the better buy right now and why. Let's see –

Reasons to Be Bullish on Micron

Surging demand for Micron's AI-focused high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips helped the company post strong fiscal fourth-quarter and full-year results. For the fiscal fourth quarter, Micron's revenues reached $11.32 billion, up from more than $7.75 billion a year earlier. The company's net income was $3.2 billion, or $2.83 per share, compared to more than $887 million, or 79 cents per share, in the same period last year.

For the full fiscal year 2025, Micron's revenues totaled $37.38 billion, up from over $25.11 billion the previous year. Net income was a healthy $8.54 billion, or $7.59 per diluted share.

Most importantly, in the latest reported quarter, Micron's key cloud memory business unit reported $4.54 billion in sales, more than tripling year over year. Leveraging the demand for HBM chips, known for their ability to reduce power consumption and process large volumes of data, Micron has raised its fiscal first-quarter revenue guidance to $12.5 billion.

Micron's CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, expressed strong optimism about the company's future, stating that they are "entering fiscal 2026 with strong momentum and our most competitive portfolio to date. As the only U.S.-based memory manufacturer, Micron is uniquely positioned to capitalize on the AI opportunity ahead," citing investors.micron.com.

And why shouldn't he? The rising demand for Micron's HBM chips, used in some of NVIDIA's semiconductors and several AI-enabled smartphones, is likely to boost Micron's performance soon. Additionally, Micron's initiative to increase chip production in the United States helps shield the company from tariff-related risks.

Reasons to Be Bullish on NVIDIA

NVIDIA has recently strengthened its partnership with one of its largest customers, further solidifying its position as a leading provider of AI training and development in the tech industry. NVIDIA has pledged to invest $100 billion in the San Francisco startup, OpenAI. This deal will involve supplying at least 10 gigawatts of NVIDIA systems to OpenAI.

Also, NVIDIA's plan to invest $5 billion in Intel common stock will help develop niche products for data centers and personal computers, improving application performance across hyperscalers and consumers (read more: Is NVIDIA's $5B Stake a Signal to Buy, Hold, or Sell Intel Stock?).

Nonetheless, NVIDIA's dominance in AI hardware and its wide moat, thanks to its CUDA software platform, should fuel its growth. Don't forget, NVIDIA already saw a 56% year-over-year increase in its fiscal second-quarter revenues, reaching $46.7 billion, driven by sales of its cutting-edge Blackwell chips, citing nvidianews.nvidia.com.

Furthermore, despite ongoing U.S.-China trade issues, NVIDIA successfully sold its H20 chips to other customers, indicating that tariffs haven't negatively impacted its performance.

NVIDIA's Valuation Looks Stretched - Is Micron the Smarter AI Bet?

The booming demand for Micron's HBM chips and NVIDIA's substantial rise in sales of data center graphics processing units (GPUs) not only boosted their latest respective quarterly performances but also provided sufficient reasons for stakeholders to remain invested in the stocks, reaping benefits in the future.

However, for a new investor, a closer look at valuation metrics indicates that Micron is more affordable than NVIDIA. Based on the price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio, Micron trades at 12.56 times forward earnings compared to NVIDIA's forward earnings multiple of 40.11. Thus, the substantial valuation gap shows that, relative to Micron, NVIDIA appears overpriced, making Micron an attractive buy for now.

Micron stock has a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while NVIDIA has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 stocks here.

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