Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) Announces Quarterly Earnings Results

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) released its earnings results on Wednesday. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.46, Zacks reports. Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 5.82% and a net margin of 13.19%.

Barrick Gold Stock Performance

Shares of GOLD stock traded down $0.30 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $18.14. 7,481,207 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,065,924. Barrick Gold has a fifty-two week low of $14.25 and a fifty-two week high of $21.35. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $16.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.17. The company has a quick ratio of 2.06, a current ratio of 2.65 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.21%. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.01%.

Barrick Gold declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in 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 an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

GOLD has been the topic of several research analyst reports. CIBC cut Barrick Gold from a “sector outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Berenberg Bank boosted their price target on Barrick Gold from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Tuesday, November 26th. Cibc World Mkts cut Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Scotiabank cut Barrick Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $23.00 to $19.00 in a research note on Thursday, January 30th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 20th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.67.

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.