B2Gold (TSE:BTO) Shares Up 16.7% - Time to Buy?

Key Points

• B2Gold shares jumped 16.7% to C$7.11 on Thursday (intraday high C$7.19) on midday volume of 3.99M shares, about 43% below its average session volume.
• Wall Street consensus is a Moderate Buy with an average target of C$8.92, while National Bank Financial trimmed its target to C$10 but maintained an "outperform" rating.
• Insiders have sold heavily recently—583,159 shares (~$4.82M) over the last 90 days leaving insiders with 0.66% ownership—while the company reports C$1.61B quarterly revenue, EPS of C$0.26 and a market cap of C$9.03B.

B2Gold Corp. (TSE:BTO - Get Free Report) NYSE: BTG's stock price shot up 16.7% during trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as C$7.19 and last traded at C$7.11. 3,985,242 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 43% from the average session volume of 6,992,009 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$6.09.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, National Bank Financial reduced their price target on shares of B2Gold from C$10.25 to C$10.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of C$8.92.

B2Gold Price Performance

The company's fifty day moving average is C$6.69 and its two-hundred day moving average is C$6.59. The firm has a market capitalization of C$9.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of -0.27 and a beta of 1.59. The company has a quick ratio of 3.33, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 17.54.

B2Gold (TSE:BTO - Get Free Report) NYSE: BTG last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported C$0.26 earnings per share for the quarter. B2Gold had a net margin of 13.18% and a return on equity of 12.15%. The business had revenue of C$1.61 billion for the quarter. Equities research analysts anticipate that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.5596659 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 19th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 19th were issued a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 6th. B2Gold's dividend payout ratio is currently 28.57%.

Insider Activity at B2Gold

In other B2Gold news, insider Randall Chatwin sold 20,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$7.25, for a total value of C$145,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 6,199 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately C$44,942.75. This represents a 76.34% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Also, insider William Lytle sold 272,373 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 26th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$8.32, for a total transaction of C$2,266,143.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 38,975 shares of the company's stock, valued at C$324,272. The trade was a 87.48% decrease in their position. Insiders sold 583,159 shares of company stock worth $4,821,759 over the last 90 days. 0.66% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

B2Gold Company Profile

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.

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