Stock Traders Buy High Volume of Call Options on Barrick Mining (NYSE:B)

Barrick Mining Corporation (NYSE:B) (TSE:ABX) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Friday. Stock traders acquired 93,515 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 113% compared to the typical daily volume of 43,979 call options.

Institutional Trading of Barrick Mining

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of B. Vanguard Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Barrick Mining in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,459,633,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Barrick Mining in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,091,122,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Barrick Mining during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $822,056,000. TD Asset Management Inc purchased a new position in shares of Barrick Mining during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $386,328,000. Finally, Ninety One UK Ltd purchased a new position in shares of Barrick Mining during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $326,862,000. 90.82% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Barrick Mining Trading Up 9.7%

Shares of B opened at $32.99 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $24.84 and its 200 day moving average is $21.40. Barrick Mining has a fifty-two week low of $15.11 and a fifty-two week high of $33.20. The stock has a market capitalization of $56.18 billion, a PE ratio of 20.75, a P/E/G ratio of 0.58 and a beta of 0.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.14, a quick ratio of 2.53 and a current ratio of 3.21.

Barrick Mining (NYSE:B) (TSE:ABX) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 11th. The gold and copper producer reported $0.47 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47. Barrick Mining had a net margin of 19.99% and a return on equity of 8.19%. The business had revenue of $3.72 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.60 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.32 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 16.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that Barrick Mining will post 1.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Barrick Mining Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 29th were paid a $0.15 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 29th. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. Barrick Mining’s dividend payout ratio is 37.74%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on B shares. Raymond James Financial set a $32.00 target price on shares of Barrick Mining in a report on Thursday. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Barrick Mining from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Barrick Mining from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 9th. CIBC upgraded shares of Barrick Mining from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 12th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Barrick Mining from $26.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Barrick Mining has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $28.78.

About Barrick Mining

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.