The Financial Post reports in its Tuesday edition that gold equities have been on a strong run so far in 2016 amid higher gold prices. The Post's Peter Koven, writing in Trading Desk, says analysts at BMO Capital Markets think the time has come to take some profits off the table because the second quarter is a seasonally weak period for gold. "We expect precious metals equities to outperform over the next 12 months, but anticipate a near-term correction perhaps providing better opportunities to buy over the next three months," they said in a note to clients. Amid the recent slump, BMO urged investors to focus on large producers that have high-quality assets, strong balance sheets and good managements. Now that prices are much stronger, BMO thinks investors should consider some higher-risk stocks that offer better upside. "These less defensive names tend to be smaller producers that often have superior growth profiles to the larger producers, which lead these companies to deliver better leverage to higher metals prices," the analysts said. Their top picks among the mid-tier producers are Alamos Gold and Endeavour Mining. The analysts raised their gold price assumptions due to continuing economic uncertainty.