Blair William & Co. IL Sells 8,031 Shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Blair William & Co. IL cut its holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 6.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 113,806 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after selling 8,031 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $1,764,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in GOLD. Sava Infond d.o.o. purchased a new stake in Barrick Gold during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $268,000. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. raised its holdings in Barrick Gold by 71.6% during the 4th quarter. Mufg Securities Canada LTD. now owns 2,669,327 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $41,365,000 after buying an additional 1,113,748 shares during the period. Bay Capital Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Barrick Gold in the fourth quarter worth $560,000. Crowley Wealth Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the 4th quarter worth about $26,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 1.8% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,358,533 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,060,036,000 after buying an additional 1,195,585 shares during the last quarter. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Bank of America lowered shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $18.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group upgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Raymond James raised their price target on Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $23.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, Stifel Canada raised Barrick Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.71.

Barrick Gold Stock Performance

GOLD opened at $19.67 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $33.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.15. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.99 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.01. Barrick Gold Corp has a 1 year low of $15.11 and a 1 year high of $21.35.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) 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%. Equities research analysts anticipate that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.03%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.52%.

Barrick Gold announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the gold and copper producer to buy up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s board 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.