Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) Stock Price Down 5.5% on Analyst Downgrade

Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) dropped 5.5% during trading on Monday after TD Securities lowered their price target on the stock from $27.00 to $26.00. TD Securities currently has a buy rating on the stock. Barrick Gold traded as low as $17.39 and last traded at $17.39. Approximately 8,654,659 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 59% from the average daily volume of 21,181,365 shares. The stock had previously closed at $18.40.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Wednesday, October 30th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Raymond James dropped their price target on Barrick Gold from $26.50 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 26th. Argus upgraded Barrick Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $24.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Scotiabank lowered their price objective on Barrick Gold from $25.00 to $24.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Barrick Gold currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.90.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of GOLD. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 64,761,067 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,077,624,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,572 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Barrick Gold by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 58,820,050 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $978,766,000 after purchasing an additional 14,138,639 shares during the last quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. raised its position in Barrick Gold by 3.7% in the second quarter. EdgePoint Investment Group Inc. now owns 18,837,028 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $314,254,000 after purchasing an additional 666,214 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in Barrick Gold by 9.0% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 14,887,656 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $251,929,000 after purchasing an additional 1,231,184 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CIBC Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 3.3% during the second quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 14,546,530 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $242,491,000 after buying an additional 461,406 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $19.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 3.01 and a quick ratio of 2.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.32, a PEG ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 0.56.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.32 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.05. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 13.19% and a return on equity of 5.85%. The firm had revenue of $3.16 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.19 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.29 EPS for the current year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.35%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 29th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.01%.

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.