Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Meets Expectations

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) announced its earnings results on Wednesday. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46, Zacks reports. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 13.19% and a return on equity of 5.82%.

Barrick Gold Trading Up 0.1 %

NYSE GOLD traded up $0.02 during trading on Thursday, reaching $18.19. 2,574,763 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 20,426,535. Barrick Gold has a fifty-two week low of $13.76 and a fifty-two week high of $21.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 2.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm has a market cap of $31.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.17.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.20%. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.01%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group cut Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $23.00 to $22.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Scotiabank lowered shares of Barrick Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $23.00 to $19.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Berenberg Bank upped their price objective on Barrick Gold from $37.00 to $38.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Barrick Gold has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.83.

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

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.