Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. Reduces Holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC. trimmed its position in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 46,828 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after selling 801 shares during the quarter. Nicholas Hoffman & Company LLC.’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $726,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.1% during the fourth 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 purchasing an additional 1,563,361 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.7% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 1,458,084 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 33.3% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 2,854,055 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 221.1% during the third 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 purchasing an additional 6,904,934 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Barrick Gold by 9.5% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,047,255 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $162,140,000 after buying an additional 696,556 shares during the last quarter. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GOLD shares. Bank of America lowered Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Scotiabank lowered Barrick Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $23.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Cibc World Mkts lowered Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Citigroup decreased their price target on Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on Barrick Gold from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Barrick Gold has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.67.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

GOLD opened at $17.96 on Monday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $16.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.17. The company has a current ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. Barrick Gold Corp has a 12-month low of $14.25 and a 12-month high of $21.35. The firm has a market cap of $31.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.31, a PEG ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last issued its quarterly 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 return on equity of 5.82% and a net margin of 13.19%. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.23%. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 43.01%.

Barrick Gold announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Barrick Gold 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.