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

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

Several equities analysts have commented on BTG shares. CIBC downgraded shares of B2Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $4.20 to $3.60 in a research note on Thursday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group began 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, Royal Bank of Canada decreased 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 report on Thursday.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On B2Gold

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of BTG. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in B2Gold by 4.6% in the first quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,343,623 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $10,757,000 after purchasing an additional 103,507 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its stake in B2Gold by 13.7% in the first quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 199,062 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $914,000 after purchasing an additional 24,045 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in B2Gold by 5.5% in the first quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 577,840 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,652,000 after purchasing an additional 30,187 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of B2Gold by 30.3% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 39,711 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $181,000 after acquiring an additional 9,229 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Advisor Networks LLC increased its stake in shares of B2Gold by 52.9% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisor Networks LLC now owns 26,750 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $123,000 after acquiring an additional 9,250 shares during the period. 61.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

B2Gold Stock Up 2.8 %

NYSEAMERICAN:BTG opened at $2.61 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $2.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 130.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.75 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 2.27, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. B2Gold has a 52 week low of $2.34 and a 52 week high of $4.40.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 9.09% and a net margin of 0.31%. The business’s revenue was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.15 EPS. On average, analysts expect that B2Gold will post 0.2 EPS for the current year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a $0.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.13%. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.