American Century Companies Inc. Purchases 187,551 Shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 9.5% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,159,280 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after buying an additional 187,551 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned 0.13% of Barrick Gold worth $33,472,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 76,299,834 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $1,182,641,000 after buying an additional 1,563,361 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in Barrick Gold by 2.7% during the third 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 acquiring an additional 1,458,084 shares during the period. Ruffer LLP raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 14.8% during the 4th quarter. Ruffer LLP now owns 10,269,848 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $159,180,000 after purchasing an additional 1,325,119 shares during the last quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in Barrick Gold in the 3rd quarter valued at $20,379,000. Finally, Crocodile Capital Partners GmbH grew its position in Barrick Gold by 97.3% in the 4th quarter. Crocodile Capital Partners GmbH now owns 1,460,000 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $22,630,000 after purchasing an additional 720,000 shares during the last quarter. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on GOLD shares. Stifel Canada raised shares of Barrick Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. Raymond James reduced their price objective on Barrick Gold from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 7th. Bank of America cut Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research report on Monday, January 27th. UBS Group raised Barrick Gold from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 20th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Barrick Gold presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.75.

Barrick Gold Stock Performance

NYSE:GOLD opened at $19.11 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.53, a price-to-earnings-growth 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. Barrick Gold Corp has a 1 year low of $15.11 and a 1 year high of $21.35. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $17.85 and a 200-day moving average of $18.05.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate 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 anticipate that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were given 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 2.09%. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.52%.

Barrick Gold Profile

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.