Wellington Management Group LLP Has $996.80 Million Position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 17.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 64,310,800 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after buying an additional 9,598,292 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $996,802,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.1% in the fourth 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 buying an additional 1,563,361 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 1.8% during the 4th 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 acquiring an additional 1,195,585 shares during the period. Amundi grew its holdings 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 worth $223,665,000 after purchasing an additional 236,116 shares in the last quarter. Ruffer LLP increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 14.8% in the fourth quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 10,269,848 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $159,180,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325,119 shares during the period. Finally, ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 4.2% in the fourth quarter. ANTIPODES PARTNERS Ltd now owns 10,051,460 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $155,810,000 after purchasing an additional 408,684 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOLD has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Stifel Canada raised shares of Barrick Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 19th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $23.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. TD Securities reduced 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. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Barrick Gold from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 18th. Finally, National Bank Financial raised Barrick Gold to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.71.

Barrick Gold Trading Up 1.4 %

GOLD opened at $19.41 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.78, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.58. Barrick Gold Corp has a fifty-two week low of $15.11 and a fifty-two week high of $21.35. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $17.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 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, research analysts predict that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Barrick Gold announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement

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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.06%. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is 32.52%.

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.