We recently published a list of Billionaire John Paulson’s 10 Stocks with Huge Upside Potential. In this article, we are going to take a look at where IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG) stands against other stocks with huge upside potential.
John Alfred Paulson is an American billionaire hedge fund manager who founded Paulson & Co. in 1994. It is a New York-based fund management firm that specializes in private equity and hedge funds. Paulson graduated as valedictorian of his class with a summa cum laude distinction in finance from NYU’s College of Business and Public Administration in 1978. He also pursued an MBA at Harvard Business School as a George F. Baker Scholar, which is a prestigious recognition awarded to the top 5% of his class. It’s supported by the Sidney J. Weinberg/Goldman Sachs scholarship, which he earned in 1980. With a client base of 20, the firm’s latest 13F filing for Q4 2024 revealed ~$1.65 billion in managed 13F securities and a top 10 holdings concentration of 98.55%.
The firm is known for its expertise in event-driven arbitrage strategies, such as merger arbitrage, bankruptcy reorganizations, and other corporate events. Paulson & Co. also pursues investments in distressed debt opportunities throughout the US and Western Europe, with the help of its strategic insights and extensive market experience. John Paulson is now also bullish on gold after 15 years and expects its price to reach ~$5,000 per ounce by 2028. He is the largest shareholder in Perpetua Resources. On April 29, Reuters reported that in a recent interview, Paulson reinforced that his conviction in gold is underpinned by the analysis of central bank buying trends and rising global trade tensions. He highlighted the inclination of central banks and individuals to seek stable stores of value now and suggested that gold will therefore enhance its global standing. Paulson believes that the Western confiscation of Russia’s foreign reserve holdings following the Ukraine invasion is one of the reasons behind the anticipated appreciation of gold prices.
Our Methodology
To compile the list of billionaire John Paulson’s 10 stocks with huge upside potential, we sifted through Q4 2024 13F filings of Paulson & Co. from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock’s upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of this upside potential. We have also added Paulson & Co.’s stake in each company and the hedge fund sentiment around each stock.
Note: All data was sourced on May 2.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter’s strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points (see more details here).
Aerial view of the Rosebel gold mine in Suriname with its open pits spanning across the landscape.
IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG)
Paulson & Co.’s Stake: $9.55 million
Number of Hedge Fund Holders: 23
Average Upside Potential as of May 2: 27.48%
IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG) is a gold producer and developer in Canada and Burkina Faso (West Africa). It owns 100% interest in the Westwood project in Quebec, 60% interest in the Côté gold project in Ontario, and 90% interest in the Essakane project in Burkina Faso.
In Q4 2024, IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG) produced 667,000 ounces of gold, which was up 43% increase year-over-year. The company also posted a record revenue of $1.63 billion from selling 699,000 ounces of gold at an average price of $2,330 per ounce. This was fueled by favorable gold prices and better-than-expected results from Côté Gold. Despite higher costs due to Côté Gold’s ramp-up, IAMGOLD ended the year with $1.2 billion in cash.
The Côté Gold ramp-up is progressing smoothly, with production beating expectations and approaching full capacity. Essakane has also exceeded production targets. For 2025, IAMGOLD Corporation (NYSE:IAG) targets gold production between 735,000 and 820,000 ounces, with a focus on maximizing Côté Gold’s potential. The company aims to maintain cost controls and projects cash costs of $1,200 to $1,350 per ounce.
Overall, IAG ranks 6th on our list of billionaire John Paulson’s stocks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of IAG as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold great promise for delivering high returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than IAG but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about the cheapest AI stock.
READ NEXT: 20 Best AI Stocks To Buy Now and 30 Best Stocks to Buy Now According to Billionaires.
Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.
