Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD)

Barrick Gold Corp (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock traders purchased 67,756 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 47% compared to the typical volume of 46,023 call options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in GOLD. Fairfield Bush & CO. acquired a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the first quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Barrick Gold in the 1st quarter valued at about $647,000. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 288.8% in the first quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 90,896 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $2,230,000 after buying an additional 67,516 shares during the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in Barrick Gold by 97.2% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 230,278 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $5,651,000 after acquiring an additional 113,486 shares during the period. Finally, Allianz Asset Management GmbH raised its position in shares of Barrick Gold by 17.7% in the first quarter. Allianz Asset Management GmbH now owns 1,007,571 shares of the gold and copper producer’s stock valued at $24,620,000 after purchasing an additional 151,763 shares during the period. 62.85% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Barrick Gold Price Performance

Shares of GOLD traded up $0.43 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $16.64. The stock had a trading volume of 28,978,815 shares, compared to its average volume of 20,537,006. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 3.16 and a quick ratio of 2.40. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $15.26 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.04. Barrick Gold has a 52 week low of $13.76 and a 52 week high of $20.75. The company has a market capitalization of $29.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.11, a P/E/G ratio of 1.21 and a beta of 0.57.

Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) (TSE:ABX) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.21 by $0.06. Barrick Gold had a net margin of 11.16% and a return on equity of 4.64%. The company had revenue of $3.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Barrick Gold will post 0.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, February 29th were given a dividend of $0.074 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, February 28th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is currently 55.56%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

GOLD has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on shares of Barrick Gold from $26.00 to $24.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 20th. Argus reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Monday, February 26th. CIBC dropped their target price on shares of Barrick Gold from $27.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Raymond James cut their price target on Barrick Gold from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and twelve have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.05.

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.