B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) Receives $4.85 Average PT from Brokerages

B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $4.85.

Several equities research analysts have commented on BTG shares. CIBC lowered B2Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $4.20 to $3.60 in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on B2Gold from $4.00 to $3.50 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of B2Gold in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. They set a “buy” rating and a $3.50 target price on the stock.

Institutional Trading of B2Gold

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of B2Gold in the fourth quarter valued at $50,125,000. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of B2Gold by 9.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 155,923,072 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $450,601,000 after buying an additional 12,836,388 shares during the period. Intact Investment Management Inc. grew its position in shares of B2Gold by 332.9% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,250,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,302,000 after buying an additional 8,651,430 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of B2Gold by 20.3% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,543,701 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $140,291,000 after buying an additional 8,177,437 shares during the period. Finally, Two Sigma Investments LP raised its holdings in B2Gold by 159.3% in the first quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 13,262,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $52,254,000 after acquiring an additional 8,147,929 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.40% of the company’s stock.

B2Gold Stock Performance

BTG opened at $2.60 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $2.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a PE ratio of 130.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.80 and a beta of 1.09. B2Gold has a fifty-two week low of $2.34 and a fifty-two week high of $4.29. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.07 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $511.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $512.00 million. B2Gold had a net margin of 0.31% and a return on equity of 9.09%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.15 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that B2Gold will post 0.22 earnings per share for the current year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.15%. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 400.20%.

About B2Gold

B2Gold Corp. operates as a gold producer company. It operates the Fekola Mine in Mali, the Masbate Mine in the Philippines, and the Otjikoto Mine in Namibia. The company also has an 100% interest in the Gramalote gold project in Colombia; 24% interest in the Calibre Mining Corp.; and approximately 19% interest in BeMetals Corp.