B2Gold Corp. (TSE:BTO) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

B2Gold Corp. (TSE:BTO) (NYSE:BTG) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the five analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, one has issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is C$7.90.

A number of research firms recently issued reports on BTO. Cormark lowered shares of B2Gold from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 7th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price target on shares of B2Gold from C$11.50 to C$10.50 in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on B2Gold from C$5.35 to C$6.25 in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Finally, National Bankshares boosted their price objective on B2Gold from C$9.25 to C$10.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 9th.

B2Gold Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of BTO stock opened at C$6.20 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is C$6.14 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$5.89. B2Gold has a twelve month low of C$3.16 and a twelve month high of C$8.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.51, a quick ratio of 3.33 and a current ratio of 1.83. The company has a market capitalization of C$8.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.33, a PEG ratio of -0.27 and a beta of 0.89.

B2Gold (TSE:BTO) (NYSE:BTG) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported C$0.14 EPS for the quarter. B2Gold had a negative return on equity of 20.27% and a negative net margin of 38.20%.The company had revenue of C$1.09 billion for the quarter. As a group, research analysts predict that B2Gold will post 0.5596659 EPS for the current year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, December 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th were issued a dividend of $0.02 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, December 2nd. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. B2Gold’s payout ratio is 66.67%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Peter Dominic Montano sold 147,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$7.49, for a total transaction of C$1,101,030.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned -1,405 shares in the company, valued at C($10,523.45). This represents a 100.97% decrease in their position. Also, insider Andrew Bruce Brown sold 75,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$7.50, for a total transaction of C$562,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 17,333 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$129,997.50. This trade represents a 81.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Insiders sold a total of 1,253,978 shares of company stock valued at $9,256,534 over the last ninety days. 0.66% of the stock is owned by insiders.

About B2Gold

B2Gold Corp is an international, low-cost, senior gold mining company. It has three operating open-pit gold mines in Mali, Namibia, and the Philippines and numerous exploration projects across four continents. Other significant assets include the Gramalote and Kiaka gold projects. The company focuses on acquiring and developing interests in mineral properties with a primary focus on gold deposits as gold production forms all its revenue. There is no dependence on a particular purchaser because the gold is sold into a global market.