B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the four ratings firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $4.92.

Several research firms have recently weighed in on BTG. Royal Bank of Canada dropped their price target 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. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of B2Gold in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. They set a “buy” rating and a $3.50 price objective for the company. Finally, CIBC cut shares of B2Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $4.20 to $3.60 in a research report on Thursday, January 25th.

B2Gold Price Performance

B2Gold stock opened at $2.81 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $2.85. B2Gold has a 1-year low of $2.34 and a 1-year high of $4.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a current ratio of 2.99. The stock has a market cap of $3.67 billion, a PE ratio of -93.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 1.10.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $0.06 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.01. B2Gold had a negative net margin of 2.10% and a positive return on equity of 8.05%. The business had revenue of $461.40 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.81 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.08 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that B2Gold will post 0.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 24th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 11th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.69%. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently -533.16%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. First Eagle Investment Management LLC grew its position in B2Gold by 142.9% during the 1st quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 27,216,340 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $71,360,000 after purchasing an additional 16,011,832 shares during the last quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 31.5% in the first quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 25,787 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $67,000 after acquiring an additional 6,174 shares in the last quarter. Primoris Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of B2Gold in the first quarter valued at about $54,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 6.9% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 151,260 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $395,000 after acquiring an additional 9,723 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 321.4% in the first quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 595,830 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,555,000 after acquiring an additional 454,431 shares in the last quarter. 61.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

B2Gold Company Profile

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.