Why Barrick Gold (ABX) Stock is Falling Today

Barrick Gold (ABX) stock is down as gold prices retreat.
By Amanda Schiavo ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Barrick Gold (ABX) are down by 5.83% to $7.18 in early afternoon trading on Tuesday, as the tumbling price of gold drags some metals and mining stocks into the red today.

Barrick Gold is a Toronto-based gold and copper producer with mines in Canada, the U.S., Argentina, Peru, Australia, the Dominican Republic and Papua New Guinea.

The precious metal is shaking off gains it saw following the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday. The price of gold increased after the events in France on safe haven demand.

With lingering worries about the attacks starting to subside the yellow metal's price has begun trading in the red again, MarketWatch reports.

Gold for December delivery is lower by 1.55% to $1,066.80 per ounce on the COMEX this afternoon.

"Gold remains stuck at low levels showing along with oil trading that while devastating and tragic, last Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris have not sparked a flight to safety, confirming the resilience of nations who do not back down in the face of terrorism," Colin Cieszynski, chief market strategist at CMC Markets, said in a note, MarketWatch added.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates BARRICK GOLD CORP as a Sell with a ratings score of D. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

We rate BARRICK GOLD CORP (ABX) a SELL. This is driven by several weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its deteriorating net income, generally high debt management risk, disappointing return on equity and generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

  • The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Metals & Mining industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 311.2% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $125.00 million to -$264.00 million.
  • The debt-to-equity ratio of 1.26 is relatively high when compared with the industry average, suggesting a need for better debt level management.
  • Current return on equity is lower than its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a clear sign of weakness within the company. Compared to other companies in the Metals & Mining industry and the overall market, BARRICK GOLD CORP's return on equity significantly trails that of both the industry average and the S&P 500.
  • Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 35.64%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 309.09% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
  • Despite the weak revenue results, ABX has significantly outperformed against the industry average of 45.4%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 11.8%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
  • You can view the full analysis from the report here: ABX

Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of Jim Cramer, TheStreet or any of its contributors.

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