Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD)

Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) saw unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Traders purchased 67,756 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 47% compared to the average daily volume of 46,023 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the fourth quarter valued at about $519,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in Barrick Gold by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 63,671,495 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,151,817,000 after buying an additional 1,103,710 shares during the period. Wahed Invest LLC boosted its holdings in Barrick Gold by 10.4% during the 4th quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 13,790 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $250,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 58.4% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 100,680,644 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,821,963,000 after buying an additional 37,128,653 shares during the period. Finally, Burford Brothers Inc. purchased a new position in Barrick Gold in the fourth quarter valued at $423,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on GOLD shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Argus restated a “hold” rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a research report on Monday, February 26th. CIBC lowered their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $27.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Scotiabank lowered their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, February 20th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reduced their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.05.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:GOLD traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $16.64. 28,978,815 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 20,537,006. Barrick Gold has a one year low of $13.76 and a one year high of $20.75. The company has a current ratio of 3.16, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15. The business’s fifty day moving average is $15.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.04. The stock has a market cap of $29.21 billion, a PE ratio of 23.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.57.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.21 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 11.16% and a return on equity of 4.64%. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.13 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that Barrick Gold will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current year.

Barrick Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a $0.074 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 55.56%.

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.