Contrasting Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) and Barrick Mining (NYSE:B)

Barrick Mining (NYSE:B) and Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) are both materials companies, but which is the better stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their analyst recommendations, valuation, earnings, dividends, institutional ownership, risk and profitability.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of recent ratings for Barrick Mining and Aura Minerals, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Barrick Mining	0	4	15	1	2.85
Aura Minerals	0	3	4	0	2.57

Barrick Mining presently has a consensus target price of $53.39, indicating a potential upside of 36.26%. Aura Minerals has a consensus target price of $86.95, indicating a potential upside of 6.01%. Given Barrick Mining’s stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, research analysts clearly believe Barrick Mining is more favorable than Aura Minerals.

Dividends

Barrick Mining pays an annual dividend of $0.70 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.8%. Aura Minerals pays an annual dividend of $2.88 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.5%. Barrick Mining pays out 18.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Aura Minerals pays out 81.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

90.8% of Barrick Mining shares are owned by institutional investors. 5.2% of Barrick Mining shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Profitability

This table compares Barrick Mining and Aura Minerals’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Barrick Mining	31.60%	16.02%	11.22%
Aura Minerals	23.18%	103.62%	21.84%

Risk and Volatility

Barrick Mining has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Aura Minerals has a beta of 0.48, suggesting that its stock price is 52% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation and Earnings

This table compares Barrick Mining and Aura Minerals”s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Barrick Mining	$16.96 billion	3.78	$4.99 billion	$3.88	10.10
Aura Minerals	$921.73 million	7.46	-$79.34 million	$3.54	23.17

Barrick Mining has higher revenue and earnings than Aura Minerals. Barrick Mining is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Aura Minerals, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

Barrick Mining beats Aura Minerals on 11 of the 16 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Barrick Mining

Barrick Gold Corporation is a sector-leading gold and copper producer.  Its shares trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol GOLD and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol ABX.
 
In January 2019 Barrick merged with Randgold Resources and in July that year it combined its gold mines in Nevada, USA, with those of Newmont Corporation in a joint venture, Nevada Gold Mines, which is majority-owned and operated by Barrick. Nevada Gold Mines is the world’s largest gold mining complex.  Barrick owns and operates six Tier One gold mines:  Cortez, Carlin and Turquoise Ridge in Nevada, Loulo-Gounkoto in Mali, Kibali in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pueblo Viejo in the Dominican Republic.
 
It has gold and copper mines and projects in 13 countries in North and South America, Africa, Papua New Guinea and Saudi Arabia. Barrick’s diversified portfolio spans the world’s most prolific gold districts and is focused on high-margin, long life assets.

About Aura Minerals

We are an Americas gold and copper production company with a significant portfolio of mining operations. Our mission is to deliver long-term value by unlocking operational efficiencies, responsibly growing our portfolio with a focus on return on invested capital, responsible mining practices and a commitment to sustainability. We operate with a decentralized culture, supported by a lean corporate team that ensures agile and dynamic management and decision-making processes, focused on high operational sustainability compliance standards. We believe that our success as a gold and copper mining company is the result of a combination of strategic acquisitions, mine expansions and development and efficiency improvements. Backed by a traditional Brazilian family of seasoned gold-focused entrepreneurs and mine developers, as well as a new management team, we have undergone a significant transformation since 2016, enhancing our profitability, replenishing resources and even extending the life-of-mine (LOM) across our operating assets, while also facilitating inorganic expansion — consistently guided by a disciplined commitment to value creation and sustainable growth. We have a track record of expanding and building new mines on-time and on-budget, with ramp-up capabilities, consistent cash flow generation and dividend payments while delivering an attractive return on investment. Our disciplined cost management ensures efficiency in reserve development while we strive to serve as the benchmark for operational security and excellence in project development. Strategically, we prioritize high-IRR (Internal Rate of Return) growth opportunities, balancing capital appreciation with reliable dividend distributions. We currently operate four wholly-owned operating mines and one mine in ramp-up phase. Our operating mines are the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico, the Apoena and Almas gold mines in Brazil and the Minosa gold mine in Honduras. Additionally, we own and operate the Borborema gold mine in Brazil, which is currently in its ramp-up phase and is expected to achieve commercial production by the third quarter of 2025. In addition to our operating mines, our main development projects are the Era Dorada gold project in Guatemala and the Matupá gold project in Brazil. We have significant exploration potential, owning over 563,558 hectares of mineral rights, and we are currently advancing multiple near-mine and regional targets along with the Carajás (Serra da Estrela) copper project in the prolific Carajás region of Brazil. Our registered office is located the British Virgin Islands.