VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC boosted its stake in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 6.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 14,051 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 880 shares during the quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $224,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.1% in 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 during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Barrick Gold by 2.7% in 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 during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in 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 valued at $227,524,000 after purchasing an additional 2,854,055 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in 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 valued at $199,427,000 after purchasing an additional 6,904,934 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.5% in the 3rd 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

GOLD has been the topic of several analyst reports. TD Securities reduced their price objective on Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Raymond James lowered their price target on Barrick Gold from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 20th. Scotiabank increased their target price 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. Finally, Berenberg Bank lifted their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.75.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

Shares of GOLD stock opened at $18.31 on Friday. Barrick Gold Corp has a twelve month low of $14.27 and a twelve month high of $21.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $18.18. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.88, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 6.76%. On average, analysts predict that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.52%.

Barrick Gold declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program 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 programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is 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.