UPDATE: Credit Suisse Lowers PT on Barrick Gold Following Pascua Construction Suspension

In a report published Thursday, Credit Suisse analyst Anita Soni reiterated an Outperform rating on Barrick Gold Corporation

, but lowered the price target from $40.00 to $38.00. In the report, Soni noted, “On April 10th Barrick announced that it is suspending construction on the Chilean side of Pascua while working to address environmental and other regulatory requirements to the satisfaction of the Chilean authorities...We have revised our TP to $38 (from $40), applying a 25% risk discount to PL (project DCF revised to $2.94B after applying discount from $3.92B) and a revised OpCFa multiple of 15x from 16x. These revisions reflect the overhang associated with uncertainty surrounding the timeline and capex at Pascua. We reiterate our Outperform rating, Barrick underperformed its peers by 5% today and 15% YTD, which is reflected in our revised TP. We continue to recommend ABX on a 12 month timeframe for re-rating as it continues to resolve the issues which weigh on the stock: 1) PL timeline/capex, 2) Pueblo Viejo taxation and 3) divestiture of non-core assets and its debt ($13.87B but 65% of that is due after 2017).” Barrick Gold Corporation closed on Wednesday at $24.46.