Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) Shares Gap Down to $17.10

Shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD - Get Free Report) TSE: ABX gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $17.10, but opened at $16.37. Barrick Gold shares last traded at $16.70, with a volume of 8,074,532 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on GOLD. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Barrick Gold from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Barrick Gold in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $21.00 target price for the company. TD Securities lowered their target price on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 16th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an "outperform" rating and issued a $18.00 target price on shares of Barrick Gold in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Barrick Gold from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and eleven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $20.06.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $15.94 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.27. The firm has a market cap of $28.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a current ratio of 3.16.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD - Get Free Report) TSE: ABX last posted its earnings results 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. Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 4.64% and a net margin of 11.16%. The firm had revenue of $3.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.13 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that Barrick Gold Corp will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were issued a dividend of $0.074 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.80%. Barrick Gold's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 55.56%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 58.4% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 100,680,644 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $1,821,963,000 after acquiring an additional 37,128,653 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.7% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 80,933,517 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $1,464,070,000 after acquiring an additional 7,150,142 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of 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 worth $1,151,817,000 after buying an additional 1,103,710 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors grew its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 16.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 45,479,229 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $821,790,000 after buying an additional 6,417,244 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 44,681,411 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $808,287,000 after buying an additional 2,680,178 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company's stock.

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.