Barrick Gold Co. (TSE:ABX) Receives Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Barrick Gold Co. (TSE:ABX) (NYSE:ABX) has received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is C$30.17.

ABX has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Sanford C. Bernstein cut their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from C$37.00 to C$36.00 in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their price target on shares of Barrick Gold from C$33.50 to C$32.00 in a report on Monday, December 2nd. TD Securities reissued a “buy” rating and set a C$34.00 price objective on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. UBS Group cut Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 30th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on Barrick Gold to C$21.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 20th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Barrick Gold news, Director Dennis Mark Bristow acquired 85,296 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The stock was purchased at an average price of C$25.03 per share, for a total transaction of C$2,135,291.53. Also, Senior Officer Poupak Bahamin bought 5,778 shares of Barrick Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, November 21st. The shares were acquired at an average cost of C$25.03 per share, for a total transaction of C$144,645.87. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

Shares of TSE:ABX opened at C$22.29 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is C$24.51 and its 200-day moving average price is C$25.18. The stock has a market capitalization of C$39.01 billion, a PE ratio of 18.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.48. Barrick Gold has a twelve month low of C$18.65 and a twelve month high of C$29.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.62, a current ratio of 3.01 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.54.

Barrick Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Investors of record on Friday, November 29th were issued a $0.135 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. This represents a $0.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.42%. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 45.38%.

About Barrick Gold

Barrick Gold Corporation engages in the exploration, mine development, production, and sale of gold and copper properties in Canada and internationally. The company also explores and sells silver and energy materials. It has ownership interests in producing gold mines located in Argentina, Canada, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Dominican Republic, Mali, Tanzania, and the United States.