Employees Retirement System of Texas Grows Stock Holdings in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Employees Retirement System of Texas boosted its position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) by 252.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 86,949 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 62,302 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas’ holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $13,477,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of GOLD. Chelsea Counsel Co. grew its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Chelsea Counsel Co. now owns 42,973 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $855,000 after buying an additional 590 shares during the period. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC lifted its position in Barrick Gold by 6.7% during the fourth quarter. VisionPoint Advisory Group LLC now owns 14,051 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $224,000 after purchasing an additional 880 shares in the last quarter. Bangor Savings Bank increased its holdings in Barrick Gold by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Bangor Savings Bank now owns 22,025 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $341,000 after acquiring an additional 956 shares in the last quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Confluence Investment Management LLC now owns 29,751 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $461,000 after purchasing an additional 974 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 3.5% in the fourth quarter. Mesirow Financial Investment Management Inc. now owns 30,510 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $473,000 after acquiring an additional 1,035 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on GOLD shares. TD Securities lowered their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 13th. Stifel Canada raised shares of Barrick Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $23.50 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, UBS Group upgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $22.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Barrick Gold presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.79.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

NYSE:GOLD opened at $17.64 on Monday. Barrick Gold Corp has a 12-month low of $15.11 and a 12-month high of $21.35. The company’s 50-day moving average is $18.17 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.98. The firm has a market cap of $30.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55. 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 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%. Research analysts expect that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.52%.

Barrick Gold announced that its board has authorized a share buyback program 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 buy up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership 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.