Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) shares are marching higher today.
Shares in the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) mining giant closed Friday trading for $159.99. In late morning trade on Monday, shares are changing hands for $162.61 apiece, up 1.6%.
For some context, the ASX 200 is up 1% at this same time.
Today's outperformance is par for the course for Rio Tinto shares this past year. While the ASX 200 has gained a modest 1.8% over 12 months, the shares in the Aussie miner have surged 39%.
And that's not including the two fully-franked dividends, totalling $5.891 a share, that Rio Tinto has paid eligible stockholders over this time.
Rio Tinto stock trades on a fully-franked trailing dividend yield of 3.6%. That works out to a grossed-up yield of 5.2%, taking those franking credits into account.
And looking ahead, Fairmont Equities' Michael Gable believes Rio Tinto is well-placed to keep outperforming (courtesy of The Bull).
Here's why.
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Should I buy Rio Tinto shares today?
Citing the first reason you might want to buy the ASX 200 mining stock today, Gable said, "Copper equivalent production was up 3% in the first half of 2026 when compared to the prior corresponding period."
Rio Tinto's increasing copper production should help support shares longer term, with global copper demand widely forecast to continue increasing over the coming years.
Over the past year, strong demand for the red metal from EVs, the global energy transition, and booming AI-fuelled data centre growth have driven the copper price up 42% to US$13,645 per tonne, according to Bloomberg data.
The second reason Gable issued a buy recommendation for Rio Tinto shares was the consensus beating production growth across its other major assets.
"Global iron ore sales in the second quarter were up 5% year-on-year. Pilbara sales were up 7% and lithium production rose 20%. Results met or exceeded expectations of most analysts," he said.
As for the third reason, Gable concluded:
A rare buy signal recently appeared on the daily relative strength index (RSI), which is a momentum indicator. The price pullback that started in June is mostly over and is transitioning to a more favourable risk/reward ratio, in my view.
A word from the ASX 200 mining stock's CEO
Rio Tinto shares closed up 1.1% on 15 July, when the miner released the growth results Gable mentioned above.
Commenting on the company's performance on the day, Rio Tinto CEO Simon Trott said:
We are delivering growth as we drive performance across the group… Our scale, geographical diversification and sophisticated supply chains continue to underpin our resilience and strong operational performance despite ongoing geopolitical uncertainty throughout the period.
