Royal Bank of Canada Issues Positive Forecast for Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) Stock Price

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) had its target price boosted by Royal Bank of Canada from $22.00 to $23.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the gold and copper producer’s stock.

GOLD has been the subject of several other research reports. UBS Group upgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price target for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Bank of America downgraded Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Citigroup cut their price target on Barrick Gold from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Raymond James boosted their price objective on Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $23.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.79.

Barrick Gold Stock Performance

Shares of GOLD opened at $17.64 on Friday. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $18.17 and a 200 day moving average of $18.01. The company has a market capitalization of $30.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.58. Barrick Gold has a 12 month low of $15.11 and a 12 month high of $21.35. The company has a current ratio of 2.89, a quick ratio of 2.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, hitting 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, sell-side analysts forecast that Barrick Gold will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.52%.

Barrick Gold declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 12th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the gold and copper producer to repurchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in GOLD. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in Barrick Gold by 29.6% in the 3rd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 849,730 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $16,890,000 after acquiring an additional 194,130 shares during the last quarter. IHT Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Barrick Gold in the third quarter worth approximately $463,000. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 7.5% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 65,185 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,297,000 after purchasing an additional 4,554 shares in the last quarter. Wahed Invest LLC lifted its position in Barrick Gold by 11.3% during the third quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 22,879 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $455,000 after purchasing an additional 2,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in Barrick Gold by 2.7% in the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 54,712,508 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $1,088,484,000 after buying an additional 1,458,084 shares in the last quarter. 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.