Lazard Asset Management LLC Boosts Stake in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 3.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 399,296 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after buying an additional 14,853 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $6,644,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of GOLD. Addenda Capital Inc. grew its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 88.1% during the 4th quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 3,105,335 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $56,176,000 after purchasing an additional 1,454,220 shares during the period. 1832 Asset Management L.P. boosted its stake in Barrick Gold by 19.2% in the 4th quarter. 1832 Asset Management L.P. now owns 1,051,755 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $19,026,000 after purchasing an additional 169,350 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its stake in Barrick Gold by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 123,651 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $2,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,066 shares during the period. DAVENPORT & Co LLC boosted its stake in Barrick Gold by 17.9% in the 4th quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 73,627 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $1,332,000 after purchasing an additional 11,166 shares during the period. Finally, First Hawaiian Bank bought a new position in Barrick Gold in the 1st quarter worth approximately $235,000. 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 recent research reports. National Bank Financial reaffirmed a “sector perform overweight” rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Monday, April 8th. CIBC upped their price objective on Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “outperformer” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price objective on Barrick Gold from $27.00 to $26.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, July 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.20.

Barrick Gold Stock Up 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE GOLD opened at $17.93 on Monday. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $17.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.50. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.70, a PEG ratio of 0.47 and a beta of 0.51. Barrick Gold Corp has a 52-week low of $13.76 and a 52-week high of $19.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 2.49 and a current ratio of 3.32.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The gold and copper producer reported $0.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.15 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $2.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.74 billion. Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 4.88% and a net margin of 12.58%. The business’s revenue was up 3.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.14 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.16 earnings per share for the current year.

Barrick Gold Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 31st were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 31st. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. This is a positive change from Barrick Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.07. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 48.78%.

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.