Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, four have given a hold recommendation and eleven have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $23.79.

GOLD has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised shares of Barrick Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. TD Securities dropped their price objective on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 16th. Scotiabank reduced their target price on Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on Barrick Gold from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Monday, February 26th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Barrick Gold

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 58.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 100,680,644 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,821,963,000 after buying an additional 37,128,653 shares during the period. Snider Financial Group acquired a new position in shares of Barrick Gold in the 1st quarter valued at about $185,000. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 80,933,517 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,464,070,000 after buying an additional 7,150,142 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 16.4% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,479,229 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $821,790,000 after acquiring an additional 6,417,244 shares during the period. Finally, Ruffer LLP lifted its holdings in Barrick Gold by 198.3% in the fourth quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 9,606,218 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $173,727,000 after acquiring an additional 6,385,566 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

Barrick Gold stock opened at $16.98 on Friday. Barrick Gold has a 12-month low of $13.76 and a 12-month high of $20.75. The company has a current ratio of 3.16, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The stock has a market cap of $29.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.21.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 4.64% and a net margin of 11.16%. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.13 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Barrick Gold will post 0.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.074 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 55.56%.

Barrick Gold Company Profile

Barrick Gold Corporation is a sector-leading gold and copper producer.  Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GOLD and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ABX.
 
In January 2019 Barrick merged with Randgold Resources and in July that year it combined its gold mines in Nevada, USA, with those of Newmont Corporation in a joint venture, Nevada Gold Mines, which is majority-owned and operated by Barrick.