Banque Pictet & Cie SA Sells 321,300 Shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Banque Pictet & Cie SA trimmed its position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD - Free Report) TSE: ABX by 77.9% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 91,000 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock after selling 321,300 shares during the quarter. Banque Pictet & Cie SA's holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $1,410,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOLD. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 2.1% in the 4th 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 purchasing an additional 1,563,361 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Barrick Gold by 2.7% in the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 54,712,508 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock valued at $1,088,484,000 after buying an additional 1,458,084 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in Barrick Gold by 33.3% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 11,431,497 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $227,524,000 after buying an additional 2,854,055 shares during the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. grew its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 221.1% during the 3rd quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 10,027,811 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $199,427,000 after buying an additional 6,904,934 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,047,255 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock valued at $162,140,000 after acquiring an additional 696,556 shares during the last quarter. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on GOLD. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a report on Tuesday. UBS Group lowered shares of Barrick Gold from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $23.00 to $22.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Berenberg Bank lifted their target price on Barrick Gold from $37.00 to $38.00 in a report 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. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $17.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research report 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's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $23.75.

Barrick Gold Stock Up 2.4 %

Shares of GOLD traded up $0.44 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $18.38. 24,516,976 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,812,906. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $16.27 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.65 and a quick ratio of 2.06. The company has a market cap of $31.74 billion, a PE ratio of 19.76, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 0.55. Barrick Gold Corp has a 52 week low of $14.27 and a 52 week high of $21.35.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD - Get Free Report) TSE: ABX last issued its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 13.19% and a return on equity of 5.82%. On average, research analysts forecast that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.18%. Barrick Gold's dividend payout ratio is 43.01%.

Barrick Gold announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 12th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the gold and copper producer to reacquire up to 3.2% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Barrick Gold Company 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.