Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) Position Lifted by First Horizon Advisors Inc.

First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 619.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 3,073 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,646 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $48,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.1% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 76,299,834 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $1,182,641,000 after buying an additional 1,563,361 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 54,712,508 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $1,088,484,000 after buying an additional 1,458,084 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 33.3% in the 3rd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 11,431,497 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $227,524,000 after buying an additional 2,854,055 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 221.1% in the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 10,027,811 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $199,427,000 after acquiring an additional 6,904,934 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,047,255 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $162,140,000 after acquiring an additional 696,556 shares during the period. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOLD. Cibc World Mkts cut shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. Bank of America cut shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Barrick Gold presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.75.

Barrick Gold Stock Performance

Barrick Gold stock opened at $17.79 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.57 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.21. The company has a market cap of $30.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.15. Barrick Gold Corp has a fifty-two week low of $14.27 and a fifty-two week high of $21.35.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.46. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 6.76%. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Barrick Gold declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the gold and copper producer to purchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.52%.

About Barrick Gold

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.