Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) was the recipient of a large decrease in short interest in the month of December. As of December 15th, there was short interest totalling 15,580,000 shares, a decrease of 21.8% from the November 30th total of 19,920,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 17,640,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 0.9 days. Currently, 0.9% of the company’s stock are short sold.
Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. National Bank Financial cut shares of Barrick Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $19.00 in a research report on Thursday, October 14th. Zacks Investment Research raised shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $19.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, December 21st. Barclays cut their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $28.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 18th. KeyCorp reaffirmed a “hold” rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Monday, December 20th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus dropped their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from C$42.00 to C$41.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 8th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Barrick Gold presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $31.70.
Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOLD. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 13.3% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 293,918 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $6,078,000 after acquiring an additional 34,469 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 2.9% during the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 32,908 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $680,000 after buying an additional 927 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in Barrick Gold during the second quarter worth $164,000. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 26.2% during the second quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,469 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 1,137 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Credit Agricole S A raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 40.9% during the second quarter. Credit Agricole S A now owns 155,756 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $3,221,000 after buying an additional 45,229 shares during the last quarter. 54.61% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.
Shares of NYSE GOLD traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $18.10. 12,787,595 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,306,598. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 3.13 and a current ratio of 4.05. The company has a market cap of $32.19 billion, a PE ratio of 16.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.94 and a beta of 0.33. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $19.55. Barrick Gold has a 1-year low of $17.27 and a 1-year high of $25.37.
Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 3rd. The gold and copper producer reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the Thomson Reuters’ consensus estimate of $0.23 by $0.01. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 16.57% and a return on equity of 6.42%. The business had revenue of $2.83 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.87 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.41 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 20.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Barrick Gold will post 1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.
The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, November 30th were paid a dividend of $0.09 per share. This represents a $0.36 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 29th. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 32.14%.
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.