Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) Shares Acquired by Employees Retirement System of Texas

Employees Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 252.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 86,949 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after acquiring an additional 62,302 shares during the period. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $13,477,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of GOLD. Russell Investments Group Ltd. grew its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 15.3% in the fourth quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 2,976,012 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $46,124,000 after purchasing an additional 394,746 shares during the last quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its position in Barrick Gold by 1.7% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 702,023 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $10,881,000 after acquiring an additional 11,662 shares during the period. Wedbush Securities Inc. increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 34.7% during the 4th quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 17,598 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $273,000 after purchasing an additional 4,535 shares in the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC bought a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold during the fourth quarter worth $259,000. Finally, KCM Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $159,000. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on GOLD shares. Scotiabank raised their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 18th. StockNews.com upgraded Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. UBS Group raised shares of Barrick Gold from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Bank of America downgraded Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the company from $21.00 to $18.00 in a report on Monday, January 27th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $23.79.

Barrick Gold Trading Down 9.0 %

NYSE:GOLD opened at $17.64 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $30.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55. Barrick Gold Corp has a 1 year low of $15.11 and a 1 year high of $21.35. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $18.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $17.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last released 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 return on equity of 6.76% and a net margin of 16.59%. As a group, analysts expect that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Barrick Gold declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 32.52%.

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.