UPDATE: J.P. Morgan Downgrades Barrick Gold Corporation to Neutral on Pascua Lama Uncertainty

In a report published Monday, J.P. Morgan analyst John Bridges downgraded the rating on Barrick Gold Corporation

from Overweight to Neutral, and lowered the price target from $47.00 to $35.00. In the report, Bridges noted, “In the 2000s, Barrick Gold focused on growth and offered investors gold exposure with market leading liquidity. Now the company is having difficulty in restructuring for the more cashflow focused ‘twenty teens'. Having some of the industry's biggest mines, Barrick has been most exposed to capital spending overruns and is still in growth mode while investors have changed. The company now faces demands from the Dominican Republic for a bigger share of early cashflow from its PV project and now faces added complexity as it has been forced to cease construction on the Chilean side of its Pascua Lama project. These uncertainties have been compounded by the recent pullback in gold prices, which we suspect could be anticipating further strengthening of the US dollar.” Barrick Gold Corporation closed on Friday at $22.62.