Employees Retirement System of Texas Raises Stock Position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Employees Retirement System of Texas lifted its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD - Free Report) TSE: ABX by 252.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 86,949 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock after acquiring an additional 62,302 shares during the quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas' holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $13,477,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in GOLD. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Barrick Gold by 17.5% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 64,310,800 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $996,802,000 after acquiring an additional 9,598,292 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in Barrick Gold by 32.4% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 10,650,999 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $169,261,000 after buying an additional 2,603,744 shares during the last quarter. Allianz SE bought a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the fourth quarter valued at $33,726,000. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in 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 valued at $1,182,641,000 after acquiring an additional 1,563,361 shares during the period. Finally, Ruffer LLP lifted its holdings in Barrick Gold by 14.8% during the fourth 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. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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Barrick Gold Trading Up 7.0 %

GOLD stock traded up $1.35 during trading on Friday, reaching $20.59. The company had a trading volume of 41,724,502 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,921,418. The company has a market cap of $35.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.74, a PEG ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55. The business has a 50 day moving average of $18.49 and a 200 day moving average of $17.92. Barrick Gold Corp has a 52 week low of $15.11 and a 52 week high of $21.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a current ratio of 2.89 and a quick ratio of 2.15.

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 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 forecast that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 12th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the gold and copper producer to purchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Friday, February 28th were issued a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.94%. Barrick Gold's payout ratio is currently 32.52%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOLD has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. National Bankshares restated an "outperform" rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. Scotiabank boosted their target price on Barrick Gold from $19.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock a "sector perform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 18th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday. Bank of America lowered Barrick Gold from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.04.

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.