B2Gold Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG)

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On B2Gold

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in BTG. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in B2Gold by 132.2% in the third quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 99,015 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $286,000 after acquiring an additional 56,366 shares during the last quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. increased its stake in B2Gold by 470.1% in the third quarter. U S Global Investors Inc. now owns 855,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,471,000 after acquiring an additional 705,133 shares during the last quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC increased its stake in B2Gold by 14.7% in the third quarter. KG&L Capital Management LLC now owns 98,200 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $284,000 after acquiring an additional 12,600 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System increased its stake in B2Gold by 2.2% in the third quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System now owns 1,065,434 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,060,000 after acquiring an additional 22,986 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in B2Gold by 96.6% in the third quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,265,601 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $3,658,000 after acquiring an additional 621,913 shares during the last quarter. 61.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

B2Gold Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of BTG stock opened at $2.56 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $2.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a current ratio of 2.27 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 128.06, a PEG ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.09. B2Gold has a 12-month low of $2.34 and a 12-month high of $4.29.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last released 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 net margin of 0.31% and a return on equity of 9.09%. The business had revenue of $511.97 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $512.00 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.15 earnings per share. The firm’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 year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were given a $0.04 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.25%. B2Gold’s payout ratio is 400.20%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of B2Gold in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $3.50 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada cut 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, March 28th. Finally, CIBC downgraded shares of B2Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $4.20 to $3.60 in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.10.

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.