Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Lowers Position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. decreased its position in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 28.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 59,873 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after selling 23,388 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $928,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in GOLD. BNP Paribas grew its position in Barrick Gold by 221.7% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas now owns 3,066 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $62,000 after buying an additional 2,113 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 619.7% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 3,073 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $48,000 after acquiring an additional 2,646 shares in the last quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC grew its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 24.1% during the 3rd quarter. Avior Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,399 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $68,000 after acquiring an additional 659 shares during the period. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Barrick Gold in the 4th quarter valued at about $65,000. Finally, Exchange Traded Concepts LLC raised its holdings in Barrick Gold by 196.9% in the 4th quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,178 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $65,000 after purchasing an additional 2,771 shares during the period. 62.85% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

GOLD has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. 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 research note on Wednesday, March 5th. TD Securities lowered their target price on Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 13th. Cibc World Mkts lowered shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 25th. CIBC cut Barrick Gold from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Barrick Gold currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.75.

Barrick Gold Stock Up 0.4 %

Shares of NYSE GOLD opened at $19.41 on Thursday. Barrick Gold Corp has a 12-month low of $0.25 and a 12-month high of $21.35. The stock has a market cap of $33.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.78, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.58. 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 business’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.05.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.46. Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 6.76% and a net margin of 16.59%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.52%.

Barrick Gold announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management 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.