Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX) Shares Pass Below 200-Day Moving Average – Time to Sell?

Barrick Gold Co. (TSE:ABX) (NYSE:ABX) crossed below its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of C$25.20 and traded as low as C$23.41. Barrick Gold shares last traded at C$23.99, with a volume of 3,501,658 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

ABX has been the topic of a number of research reports. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their target price on Barrick Gold from C$33.50 to C$32.00 in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. Scotiabank downgraded shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Cibc World Mkts cut shares of Barrick Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, November 25th. TD Securities reiterated a “buy” rating and set a C$34.00 price target on shares of Barrick Gold in a report on Wednesday, October 16th. Finally, National Bankshares lowered their price target on Barrick Gold from C$26.00 to C$24.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of C$30.38.

Barrick Gold Stock Down 1.0 %

The company’s fifty day simple moving average is C$23.25 and its 200-day simple moving average is C$25.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 14.54, a current ratio of 3.01 and a quick ratio of 2.62. The firm has a market capitalization of C$41.58 billion, a PE ratio of 19.97, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.34 and a beta of 0.48.

Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX) (NYSE:ABX) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 7th. The basic materials company reported C$0.42 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of C$0.45 by C($0.03). Barrick Gold had a return on equity of 7.20% and a net margin of 12.78%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that Barrick Gold Co. will post 2.2422764 EPS for the current year.

Barrick Gold Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 29th were paid a dividend of $0.135 per share. This represents a $0.54 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 29th. Barrick Gold’s payout ratio is 45.38%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Barrick Gold news, Director Dennis Mark Bristow purchased 85,296 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, November 21st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of C$25.03 per share, with a total value of C$2,135,291.53. Also, Senior Officer Poupak Bahamin sold 2,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$24.49, for a total value of C$61,215.00. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.