Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) to Issue $0.10 Quarterly Dividend

Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 12th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a dividend of 0.10 per share by the gold and copper producer on Monday, March 17th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.20%.

Barrick Gold has increased its dividend by an average of 3.6% annually over the last three years. Barrick Gold has a dividend payout ratio of 23.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Barrick Gold to earn $1.53 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.40 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.1%.

Barrick Gold Stock Performance

Shares of GOLD stock opened at $18.18 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 2.65, a quick ratio of 2.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.18 and a 200-day simple moving average of $18.17. The company has a market cap of $31.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55. Barrick Gold has a 12-month low of $13.76 and a 12-month high of $21.35.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46. Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 5.82% and a net margin of 13.19%. On average, equities analysts forecast that Barrick Gold will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently weighed in on GOLD. Scotiabank cut Barrick Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $19.00 in a report on Thursday, January 30th. TD Securities lowered their target price on Barrick Gold from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Berenberg Bank lifted their price target on Barrick Gold from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. CIBC lowered shares of Barrick Gold from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, UBS Group downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $23.00 to $22.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.83.

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