B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) Short Interest Down 5.2% in April

B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 14,560,000 shares, a decrease of 5.2% from the March 31st total of 15,360,000 shares. Approximately 1.1% of the company’s shares are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 12,810,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 1.1 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of B2Gold by 132.2% during the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 99,015 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $286,000 after purchasing an additional 56,366 shares during the last quarter. Maryland State Retirement & Pension System raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 22,986 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 621,913 shares during the period. DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co lifted its position in shares of B2Gold by 8.5% during the 3rd quarter. DORCHESTER WEALTH MANAGEMENT Co now owns 134,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $388,000 after buying an additional 10,534 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its stake in shares of B2Gold by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 245,991 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $710,000 after acquiring an additional 40,921 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.40% of the company’s stock.

B2Gold Price Performance

Shares of BTG stock opened at $2.54 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 2.27. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $2.87. B2Gold has a one year low of $2.34 and a one year high of $4.29. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 127.06, a P/E/G ratio of 1.59 and a beta of 1.09.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported $0.07 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $512.00 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that B2Gold will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $0.04 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 6th. This represents a $0.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.30%. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 400.20%.

About B2Gold

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.