UPDATE 1-JP Morgan sets 2009 targets on 8 precious metal stocks

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Jan 16 (Reuters) - J.P. Morgan Securities introduced new price targets for 2009 on the stocks of eight of the gold and silver miners under its coverage, and cut its ratings on four of them.

"Our new price targeting methodology leans heavily on our conviction that gold equity stock prices are driven primarily by their connection to the expected gold price," analyst John Bridges said in a note to clients.

Bridges also said he was looking at factors such as diversification of assets, assets located in countries with higher debt ratings, reserve growth and future production estimates.

The analyst downgraded Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd (AEM.N) (AEM.TO), Goldcorp Inc (GG.N)(G.TO) and Kinross Gold Corp (K.TO)(KGC.N) to "neutral" from "overweight" and Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.O)(PAA.TO) to "underweight" from "neutral."

The following are the new price targets for 2009 set by J.P. Morgan on gold and silver miners:

Company Price Target (in $) Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd (AEM.N) 51.00

Barrick Gold Corp (ABX.N) 37.00

Buenaventura (BVN.N) 19.00

Goldcorp Inc (GG.N) 26.00

Kinross Gold Corp (KGC.N) 19.00

Newmont Mining Corp (NEM.N) 49.00

Pan American Silver Corp (PAAS.O) 10.00

Silver Wheaton (SLW.N) 9.00 (Reporting by Arup Roychoudhury in Bangalore; Editing by Amitha Rajan) (arup.roychoudhury@thomsonreuters.com; within U.S. +1 646 223 8780; outside U.S. +91 80 4135 5800; Reuters Messaging: arup.roychoudhury.reuters.com@reuter...