Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Stock Holdings in B2Gold Corp. $BTG

Key Points

• The Royal Bank of Canada reduced its stake in B2Gold Corp. by 3.3%, selling 136,917 shares and retaining approximately $11.54 million worth of the stock.
• Key investors, including Pale Fire Capital SE and Vanguard Group Inc., increased their holdings in B2Gold, indicating a general trend of institutional investment in the company.
• B2Gold recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.02 per share, reflecting a 1.8% dividend yield, and missed the earnings consensus estimate for the last quarter.

Royal Bank of Canada lessened its stake in shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG - Free Report) by 3.3% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,048,701 shares of the company's stock after selling 136,917 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.31% of B2Gold worth $11,539,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. acquired a new stake in B2Gold in the 1st quarter worth approximately $278,000. Tidal Investments LLC acquired a new stake in B2Gold in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $183,000. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of B2Gold by 58.0% during the first quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 188,530 shares of the company's stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 69,177 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in B2Gold by 2.1% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 54,099,978 shares of the company's stock valued at $153,752,000 after buying an additional 1,089,501 shares in the last quarter. Finally, US Bancorp DE boosted its holdings in B2Gold by 4,920.6% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 74,606 shares of the company's stock worth $213,000 after buying an additional 73,120 shares during the last quarter. 61.40% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

BTG has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. National Bankshares reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of B2Gold in a report on Wednesday, July 16th. CIBC restated a "neutral" rating and set a $4.00 price target (up from $3.60) on shares of B2Gold in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. Raymond James Financial upgraded B2Gold to a "moderate buy" rating and set a $4.50 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, June 30th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded B2Gold from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, two have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, B2Gold presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $4.50.

B2Gold Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:BTG traded up $0.01 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $4.33. 54,072,819 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 41,793,699. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.08. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $3.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $3.43. B2Gold Corp. has a 1 year low of $2.20 and a 1 year high of $4.60. The firm has a market cap of $5.73 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -9.02, a P/E/G ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.42.

B2Gold (NYSE:BTG - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.12 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.13 by ($0.01). B2Gold had a positive return on equity of 5.65% and a negative net margin of 33.12%.The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 40.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.06 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.4 EPS for the current year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 23rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 10th. B2Gold's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -22.86%.

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.