National Bank of Canada FI Purchases 849,925 Shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG) by 16.8% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 5,915,425 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 849,925 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in B2Gold were worth $18,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of BTG. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in B2Gold by 40.6% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 166,079,133 shares of the company’s stock valued at $566,312,000 after acquiring an additional 47,967,010 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in shares of B2Gold by 66.9% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 17,875,880 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,058,000 after purchasing an additional 7,165,600 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of B2Gold by 69.5% during the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 11,596,488 shares of the company’s stock valued at $35,837,000 after purchasing an additional 4,754,500 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. grew its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 39.4% in the second quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 12,284,484 shares of the company’s stock worth $33,053,000 after purchasing an additional 3,474,553 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in B2Gold by 80.0% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 7,450,283 shares of the company’s stock worth $19,957,000 after buying an additional 3,311,970 shares during the period. 61.40% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BTG shares. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price objective on shares of B2Gold from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. Cibc World Mkts lowered B2Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. CIBC raised their price objective on B2Gold from $3.30 to $3.60 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. Cormark cut B2Gold from a “moderate buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, StockNews.com lowered B2Gold from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, B2Gold has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.12.

B2Gold Stock Performance

Shares of BTG stock opened at $2.68 on Tuesday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $3.05 and its 200 day moving average is $2.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.08, a current ratio of 1.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The firm has a market cap of $3.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.79, a PEG ratio of 0.49 and a beta of 1.08. B2Gold Corp. has a 52-week low of $2.34 and a 52-week high of $3.50.

B2Gold (NYSE:BTG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.03). B2Gold had a positive return on equity of 7.53% and a negative net margin of 38.42%. The company had revenue of $448.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $449.28 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.05 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.23 EPS for the current fiscal year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.04 per share. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.97%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 2nd. B2Gold’s payout ratio is -28.57%.

B2Gold 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.