Lots of Work Ahead for Major Coal Miners

Forbes reported that large coal miners like Peabody Energy Corp. (NYSE:BTU), Walter Energy Inc. (TSX:WLT,NYSE:WLT) and China’s Yanzhou Coal Mining Co. Ltd. (NYSE:YZC) have a lot of “heavy lifting” to do if are to recover from their recent losses.

As quoted in the market news:

If anything, the tone on Wall Street is getting colder on coal, which pushes the rally points back even further for once-mighty stocks like Peabody Energy BTU -1.61% , Walter Energy (WLT) and China’s battered Yanzhou Coal Mining YZC -1.35% , all of which are still down 75% to 90% from their 2011 peaks even after yesterday’s rally. Goldman Sachs is only the latest downgrade here, cutting its price target on all-important metallurgical coal $10 per metric ton as demand simply fails to reignite.

And in the meantime, with no clear tailwind from pricing, the big miners are staring at weak balance sheets, inflated rear-view comparisons and a relationship with environmental regulators that can at best be described as ambivalent. These are real concerns that indicate the amount of heavy lifting management still needs to do before these stocks can really soar again.

Click here to read the full Forbes report.