USS Investment Management Ltd Buys 322,915 Shares of Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:B)

USS Investment Management Ltd grew its stake in Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:B) (TSE:ABX) by 276.2% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 439,815 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 322,915 shares during the period. USS Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in Barrick Gold were worth $6,808,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of B. Capital International Investors grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 136.1% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 33,293,792 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $516,055,000 after purchasing an additional 19,189,830 shares during the last quarter. Causeway Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Barrick Gold during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $172,225,000. Wellington Management Group LLP grew its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 17.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 64,310,800 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $996,802,000 after buying an additional 9,598,292 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Barrick Gold by 236.7% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 6,815,946 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $105,692,000 after buying an additional 4,791,663 shares during the period. Finally, Capital International Inc. CA bought a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold during the 4th quarter worth approximately $57,991,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.82% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have commented on B shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on Barrick Gold from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, April 11th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets started coverage on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Wednesday, April 16th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. TD Securities dropped their target price 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. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.05.

Barrick Gold Trading Up 0.9%

Shares of NYSE B opened at $18.84 on Thursday. Barrick Gold Corp has a 1-year low of $17.41 and a 1-year high of $47.50. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $19.04 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.44 and a beta of 0.25. 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:B) (TSE:ABX) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.29 by $0.06. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 6.76%. The business had revenue of $3 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.15 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.19 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 13.9% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect 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 stock buyback program 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 stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Barrick Gold Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 16th. Investors of record on Friday, May 30th will be given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 30th. This represents a $0.40 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.12%. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is 30.08%.

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.