Old West Investment Management LLC Sells 504,149 Shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Old West Investment Management LLC cut its holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 77.1% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 149,500 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after selling 504,149 shares during the period. Old West Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $2,317,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of GOLD. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Barrick Gold by 2.1% in the 4th 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 period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 68,358,533 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $1,060,036,000 after buying an additional 1,195,585 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 17.5% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 64,310,800 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $996,802,000 after buying an additional 9,598,292 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 14,120,278 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $223,665,000 after buying an additional 236,116 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Barrick Gold by 32.4% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,650,999 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $169,261,000 after acquiring an additional 2,603,744 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on GOLD shares. UBS Group raised shares of Barrick Gold from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Bank of America lowered Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. TD Securities lowered their price objective on Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.79.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

Barrick Gold stock opened at $17.64 on Friday. Barrick Gold Corp has a 52-week low of $15.11 and a 52-week high of $21.35. The company has a quick ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 2.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $18.17 and its 200 day moving average is $18.01. The company has a market cap of $30.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.58.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.46. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 6.76%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.52%.

Barrick Gold announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are 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.