NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Harmony Gold Mining Co. (HMY) - Get Report are down by 8.22% to $2.01 in mid-morning trading on Friday, as the decline in the price of gold drives stocks related to the precious metal lower today.

Gold for April delivery is slipping by 1.74% to $1,175.40 per ounce on the COMEX this morning.

Better than expected jobs data is pushing the yellow metal into the red as concerns arise that the jobs report will give further support to the Fed's plan to hike up interest rates later this year.

When interest rates rise gold will struggle to compete with yield-bearing investments as it pays its holders nothing, the Wall Street Journal said.

The Labor Department said today that in February employers added 295,000 jobs to payroll and the unemployment rate fell to 5.5%.

Economists polled by the Wall Street Journal were expecting payroll to rise by 240,000 last month.

"This is not good for gold. This add fuel to the fire for the idea that the Fed will raise rates sooner rather than later," broker Bob Haberkorn of RJO Futures told the Journal.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates HARMONY GOLD MINING CO LTD as a Sell with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate HARMONY GOLD MINING CO LTD (HMY) a SELL. This is driven by a number of negative factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its unimpressive growth in net income, poor profit margins, weak operating cash flow and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Metals & Mining industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 743.7% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from -$8.73 million to -$73.68 million.
• The gross profit margin for HARMONY GOLD MINING CO LTD is currently extremely low, coming in at 14.14%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of -23.47% is significantly below that of the industry average.
• Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to -$3.55 million or 105.53% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower.
• The share price of HARMONY GOLD MINING CO LTD has not done very well: it is down 24.23% and has underperformed the S&P 500, in part reflecting the company's sharply declining earnings per share when compared to the year-earlier quarter. The fact that the stock is now selling for less than others in its industry in relation to its current earnings is not reason enough to justify a buy rating at this time.
• Current return on equity exceeded its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of strength within the company. Compared to other companies in the Metals & Mining industry and the overall market, HARMONY GOLD MINING CO LTD's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: HMY Ratings Report