B2Gold Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG)

B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors acquired 4,754 call options on the company. This is an increase of 41% compared to the typical volume of 3,368 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BTG has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of B2Gold from $4.00 to $3.50 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, March 28th. CIBC lowered shares of B2Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $4.20 to $3.60 in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. 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 price objective for the company. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, B2Gold has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $5.10.

B2Gold Price Performance

Shares of NYSEAMERICAN:BTG opened at $2.56 on Wednesday. B2Gold has a fifty-two week low of $2.34 and a fifty-two week high of $4.29. The business has a 50-day moving average of $2.88. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a PE ratio of 128.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.09. 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 announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.07 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by ($0.01). B2Gold had a return on equity of 9.09% and a net margin of 0.31%. The company had revenue of $511.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $512.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.15 EPS. B2Gold’s quarterly revenue was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that B2Gold will post 0.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors 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 6.25%. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is presently 400.20%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On B2Gold

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in BTG. Independent Wealth Network Inc. bought a new position in B2Gold during the first quarter valued at about $26,000. Wesbanco Bank Inc. bought a new position in B2Gold during the first quarter valued at about $27,000. Stableford Capital II LLC bought a new position in B2Gold during the first quarter valued at about $34,000. C M Bidwell & Associates Ltd. bought a new position in B2Gold during the third quarter valued at about $35,000. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in B2Gold during the fourth quarter valued at about $38,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.40% of the company’s stock.

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.