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Barrick Gold 4Q earnings top estimates; dividend hiked – Kitco NEWS

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(Kitco News) – Barrick Gold Corp. (NYSE: GOLD; TSX: ABX) reported a higher fourth-quarter adjusted profit that beat analysts’ estimates Wednesday and also announced a dividend hike and an increase in gold reserves.

The company reported adjusted fourth-quarter earnings – excluding special items – of $300 million, or 17 cents per share, up from $264 million, or 15 cents, in the third quarter. The result beat the consensus estimates of analysts, which news and analyst reports put at 14 to 15 cents per share.

Barrick, which acquired Randgold Resources at the beginning of 2019 and later formed a joint venture with Newmont Corp. for the two companies’ Nevada mines, compared its results to the third quarter in its earnings release rather than the year-ago period.

The company said its board of directors declared a fourth-quarter dividend of seven cents per share, up from the previous quarter’s dividend of five cents. It will be payable on March 16 to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Feb. 28.

This was the third dividend increase in roughly a year, said Graham Shuttleworth, chief financial officer. The dividend had been three cents at the time of the Barrick-Randgold Resources merger.

“The board believes the dividend increase is justified by the significant reduction in net debt and strong balance sheet, together with the growth in free cash flow supported by a robust five-year plan which we have shared with the market,” Shuttleworth said.

Fourth-quarter gold production was listed at 1.439 million ounces, with all-in sustaining costs of $923 an ounce. Output was up from 1.306 million ounces in the third quarter, when AISC were $984. Barrick reported an average realized gold price of $1,483 an ounce in the fourth quarter, up from $1,476. The company also produced 117 million pounds of copper. 

Barrick said its debt, net of cash, was halved in 2019 to $2.2 billion.

For full-year 2019, Barrick said adjusted earnings came in at $902 million, or 51 cents a share, up from $409 million, or 35 cents, in 2018. Full-year gold production of 5,465,000 ounces was at the top end of its guidance range and exceeded 4,527,000 in 2018, while copper production of 432 million pounds was above guidance.

“We started the year with five tier-one gold mines and ended it with six, thanks to the Nevada deal,” said chief executive Mark Bristow. “We’ve also succeeded in replenishing our reserves and resources, net of depletion, at a higher grade.”

Barrick said its gold mineral reserves increased by 14.5%, with a 7.7% higher grade, after depletion, following a year in which the company acquired Randgold, formed the joint venture with Newmont and disposed of its share of Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mines in Australia. Reserves now stand at 1,300 million metric tons at 1.68 grams per ton for 71 million ounces of gold. Measured and indicated resources at $1,500-an-ounce gold rose to 170 million ounces, while another 39 million are classified as inferred.

The company listed copper reserves of 13 billion pounds and silver reserves of 150 million ounces.

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Netflix’s subscriber growth slows as gains from password-sharing crackdown subside

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Netflix on Thursday reported that its subscriber growth slowed dramatically during the summer, a sign the huge gains from the video-streaming service’s crackdown on freeloading viewers is tapering off.

The 5.1 million subscribers that Netflix added during the July-September period represented a 42% decline from the total gained during the same time last year. Even so, the company’s revenue and profit rose at a faster pace than analysts had projected, according to FactSet Research.

Netflix ended September with 282.7 million worldwide subscribers — far more than any other streaming service.

The Los Gatos, California, company earned $2.36 billion, or $5.40 per share, a 41% increase from the same time last year. Revenue climbed 15% from a year ago to $9.82 billion. Netflix management predicted the company’s revenue will rise at the same 15% year-over-year pace during the October-December period, slightly than better than analysts have been expecting.

The strong financial performance in the past quarter coupled with the upbeat forecast eclipsed any worries about slowing subscriber growth. Netflix’s stock price surged nearly 4% in extended trading after the numbers came out, building upon a more than 40% increase in the company’s shares so far this year.

The past quarter’s subscriber gains were the lowest posted in any three-month period since the beginning of last year. That drop-off indicates Netflix is shifting to a new phase after reaping the benefits from a ban on the once-rampant practice of sharing account passwords that enabled an estimated 100 million people watch its popular service without paying for it.

The crackdown, triggered by a rare loss of subscribers coming out of the pandemic in 2022, helped Netflix add 57 million subscribers from June 2022 through this June — an average of more than 7 million per quarter, while many of its industry rivals have been struggling as households curbed their discretionary spending.

Netflix’s gains also were propelled by a low-priced version of its service that included commercials for the first time in its history. The company still is only getting a small fraction of its revenue from the 2-year-old advertising push, but Netflix is intensifying its focus on that segment of its business to help boost its profits.

In a letter to shareholder, Netflix reiterated previous cautionary notes about its expansion into advertising, though the low-priced option including commercials has become its fastest growing segment.

“We have much more work to do improving our offering for advertisers, which will be a priority over the next few years,” Netflix management wrote in the letter.

As part of its evolution, Netflix has been increasingly supplementing its lineup of scripted TV series and movies with live programming, such as a Labor Day spectacle featuring renowned glutton Joey Chestnut setting a world record for gorging on hot dogs in a showdown with his longtime nemesis Takeru Kobayashi.

Netflix will be trying to attract more viewer during the current quarter with a Nov. 15 fight pitting former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson against Jake Paul, a YouTube sensation turned boxer, and two National Football League games on Christmas Day.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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