Franklin Resources Inc. Reduces Stock Position in B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG)

Franklin Resources Inc. reduced its holdings in shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG) by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 9,427,329 shares of the company’s stock after selling 413,888 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc.’s holdings in B2Gold were worth $30,667,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. E&G Advisors LP acquired a new stake in B2Gold in the third quarter valued at $31,000. Private Advisor Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of B2Gold in the 3rd quarter valued at about $33,000. Flow Traders U.S. LLC bought a new position in shares of B2Gold during the third quarter worth about $35,000. HighTower Advisors LLC acquired a new position in B2Gold in the third quarter worth about $36,000. Finally, Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its holdings in B2Gold by 35.0% in the third quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 13,500 shares of the company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 3,500 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 61.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BTG has been the subject of several research reports. CIBC lifted their target price on B2Gold from $3.30 to $3.60 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, September 24th. Cibc World Mkts downgraded shares of B2Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 24th. StockNews.com lowered shares of B2Gold from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and issued a $3.75 price target on shares of B2Gold in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of B2Gold from $4.00 to $5.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $4.12.

B2Gold Stock Down 3.1 %

B2Gold stock opened at $2.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a current ratio of 1.83. B2Gold Corp. has a one year low of $2.34 and a one year high of $3.50. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $2.99 and a 200-day simple moving average of $2.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.27 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.45, a P/E/G ratio of 0.53 and a beta of 1.08.

B2Gold (NYSE:BTG) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The company reported $0.02 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $448.23 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $449.28 million. B2Gold had a positive return on equity of 7.53% and a negative net margin of 38.42%. B2Gold’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.05 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.23 earnings per share for the current year.

B2Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 12th. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 2nd were paid a dividend of $0.04 per share. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.43%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, December 2nd. B2Gold’s payout ratio is currently -28.57%.

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.