Legal & General Group Plc Cuts Position in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD)

Legal & General Group Plc lowered its stake in shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD - Free Report) TSE: ABX by 22.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 7,031,426 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock after selling 2,071,848 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc owned about 0.41% of Barrick Gold worth $108,977,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Employees Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 252.8% in the fourth quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 86,949 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $13,477,000 after acquiring an additional 62,302 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. raised its holdings in Barrick Gold by 15.3% in the 4th quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 2,976,012 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $46,124,000 after purchasing an additional 394,746 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in Barrick Gold by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 702,023 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock worth $10,881,000 after purchasing an additional 11,662 shares in the last quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 34.7% in the fourth quarter. Wedbush Securities Inc. now owns 17,598 shares of the gold and copper producer's stock valued at $273,000 after purchasing an additional 4,535 shares during the period. Finally, Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $259,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company's stock.

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Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOLD. Scotiabank lifted their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company a "sector perform" rating in a research note on Monday. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $23.00 to $23.50 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Stifel Canada raised shares of Barrick Gold to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Bank of America lowered Barrick Gold from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $18.00 in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, TD Securities decreased their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 13th. Six investment 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.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.21.

Barrick Gold Trading Down 0.5 %

Shares of GOLD traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $20.31. 15,744,286 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,805,568. 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 quick ratio of 2.15 and a current ratio of 2.89. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.55 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.90. The firm has a market cap of $34.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.52, a P/E/G ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.55.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD - Get Free Report) TSE: ABX last released its 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%. On average, research analysts anticipate that Barrick Gold Corp will post 1.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold declared that its board has initiated a share buyback plan 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.97%. Barrick Gold's dividend payout ratio is presently 32.52%.

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.