By otakuyassine3@gmail.com 
Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. trimmed its stake in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD – Free Report) (TSE:ABX) by 26.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 10,223 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after selling 3,624 shares during the quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD.’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $158,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOLD. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 221.1% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 10,027,811 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $199,427,000 after purchasing an additional 6,904,934 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 33.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 11,431,497 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $227,524,000 after purchasing an additional 2,854,055 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 2.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 54,712,508 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,088,484,000 after purchasing an additional 1,458,084 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd purchased a new stake in Barrick Gold in the third quarter valued at approximately $20,379,000. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP grew its stake in Barrick Gold by 114.3% during the third quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 1,447,251 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $28,786,000 after buying an additional 771,857 shares during the period. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
GOLD has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Barrick Gold presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.67.
Read Our Latest Stock Report on Barrick Gold
Barrick Gold Trading Down 2.6 %
GOLD opened at $17.96 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.01 billion, a PE ratio of 19.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55. Barrick Gold Corp has a 12-month low of $14.25 and a 12-month high of $21.35. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $16.23 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.17. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.65 and a quick ratio of 2.06.
Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD – Get Free Report) (TSE:ABX) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 13.19% and a return on equity of 5.82%. As a group, research analysts expect that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.
Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement
The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 43.01%.
Barrick Gold announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.
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.
See Also
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