Market Rally Doesn't Take The Shine Off Gold, Argus Boosts Barrick Gold Price Target

Argus's Bill Selesky reaffirmed Barrick Gold Corporation (USA)'s (NYSE: ABX) Buy rating and raised the company's price target from $23.00 to $26.00.

The analyst increased his price target due to improving gold industry fundamentals and a forecasted weaker U.S. dollar in the near future as gold generally has an inverse relationship to the dollar according to Selesky.

The Barrick Advantage

Additionally, the analyst appreciated Barrick's efforts to reduce debt, divest non core assets, and decrease overall operating costs. Selesky highlighted Barrick's low costs of $782/ounce of gold against the peer median of $826 an ounce.

Following positive guidance and additional analysis, Selesky raised Barrick's 2016 EPS estimate from $0.56 to $0.70 to reflect Argus' "higher near-term price expectations for gold and.. lower production cost assumptions." The analyst's EPS estimate is three cents higher than the analyst average of $0.67.

According to TipRanks, Bill Selesky has a 65 percent success rate and an average rate of return per recommendation of +5.0 percent.

At time of writing, Barrick Gold traded at $21.82, up 1.54 percent.