Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 9,971,331 Shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG)

Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) by 6.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 165,894,403 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,971,331 shares during the period. B2Gold makes up approximately 1.0% of Van ECK Associates Corp’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 21st largest holding. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 12.74% of B2Gold worth $524,231,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BTG. Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 332.9% during the third quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 11,250,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,302,000 after acquiring an additional 8,651,430 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 20.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 48,543,701 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $140,291,000 after purchasing an additional 8,177,437 shares in the last quarter. Grantham Mayo Van Otterloo & Co. LLC acquired a new position in shares of B2Gold during the third quarter worth about $2,223,000. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of B2Gold by 22.3% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,694,871 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $10,429,000 after buying an additional 672,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new stake in B2Gold in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $1,826,000. 61.40% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on BTG. CIBC downgraded shares of B2Gold from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $4.20 to $3.60 in a research report on Thursday, January 25th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on B2Gold in a report on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $3.50 price objective for the company. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada dropped their target price on B2Gold from $4.00 to $3.50 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 28th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $5.10.

B2Gold Price Performance

B2Gold stock traded up $0.02 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $2.64. 7,249,535 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,097,476. The company has a 50 day moving average of $2.88. B2Gold Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $2.34 and a fifty-two week high of $4.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.44 billion, a PE ratio of 132.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 2.27.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last posted its 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 return on equity of 9.09% and a net margin of 0.31%. The firm had revenue of $511.97 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $512.00 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.15 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 13.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.04 per share. This represents a $0.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 400.20%.

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.