Guardian Capital LP Decreases Position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Guardian Capital LP trimmed its stake in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD - Free Report) TSE: ABX by 44.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 526,285 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock after selling 424,680 shares during the period. Guardian Capital LP's holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $8,157,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in shares of 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 valued at $1,182,641,000 after purchasing an additional 1,563,361 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position 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 valued at $1,060,036,000 after buying an additional 1,195,585 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 17.5% in the fourth 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. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 136.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 33,293,792 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $516,055,000 after buying an additional 19,189,830 shares during the period. Finally, 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. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on GOLD shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. TD Securities decreased their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. StockNews.com upgraded Barrick Gold from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, April 5th. Finally, Stifel Canada upgraded Barrick Gold to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Barrick Gold has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.05.

Barrick Gold Trading Down 3.5 %

NYSE GOLD traded down $0.67 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $18.37. The company had a trading volume of 19,790,485 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,454,726. 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 market capitalization of $31.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $18.97 and a 200 day moving average of $17.90. Barrick Gold Corp has a 1-year low of $15.11 and a 1-year high of $21.35.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD - Get Free Report) TSE: ABX last posted 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%. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.18%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold's payout ratio is 32.52%.

Barrick Gold announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company's board of directors 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.