Investors Buy Large Volume of Barrick Gold Call Options (NYSE:GOLD)

by · The Markets Daily

Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD – Get Free Report) (TSE:ABX) was the target of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 75,011 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 58% compared to the average daily volume of 47,449 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Barrick Gold

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of GOLD. Quantinno Capital Management LP grew its holdings in Barrick Gold by 7.5% during the 3rd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 65,185 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,297,000 after purchasing an additional 4,554 shares in the last quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd boosted its position in Barrick Gold by 152.4% in the 3rd quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 57,530 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $1,144,000 after buying an additional 34,733 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.5% during the third 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 in the last quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 36.5% during the third quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC now owns 604,199 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $12,018,000 after acquiring an additional 161,688 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Toronto Dominion Bank lifted its stake in shares of Barrick Gold by 9.8% in the third quarter. Toronto Dominion Bank now owns 6,035,814 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock worth $120,052,000 after acquiring an additional 538,204 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 62.85% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently issued reports on GOLD. Raymond James raised their price target on 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 upgraded Barrick Gold to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, March 19th. National Bankshares reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Citigroup decreased their price target on Barrick Gold from $21.00 to $17.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 31st. Finally, StockNews.com raised Barrick Gold from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday, April 5th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Barrick Gold currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $23.79.

View Our Latest Report on Barrick Gold

Barrick Gold Trading Up 2.8 %

NYSE:GOLD traded up $0.53 on Thursday, hitting $19.33. 24,043,947 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 21,877,953. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $18.36 and a 200-day moving average of $17.93. The stock has a market cap of $33.36 billion, a PE ratio of 15.71, a PEG 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 has a fifty-two week low of $15.11 and a fifty-two week high of $21.35.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD – Get Free Report) (TSE:ABX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.46 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.46. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 16.59% and a return on equity of 6.76%. As a group, equities analysts expect that Barrick Gold will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 28th were given a $0.10 dividend. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.07%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, February 28th. Barrick Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.52%.

Barrick Gold declared that its board has approved a stock 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 purchase up to 3.2% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

About Barrick Gold

(Get Free Report)

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.

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