B2Gold (TSE:BTO) Trading Down 8.1% – What’s Next?

B2Gold Corp. (TSE:BTO) (NYSE:BTG) shares traded down 8.1% on Friday . The stock traded as low as C$4.11 and last traded at C$4.17. 3,490,010 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 5% from the average session volume of 3,678,473 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$4.54.

Analyst Ratings Changes

BTO has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. TD Securities downgraded shares of B2Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Bank of America cut shares of B2Gold from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. Cormark upgraded shares of B2Gold from a “market perform” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from C$4.50 to C$6.25 in a research report on Friday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of B2Gold from C$8.50 to C$7.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, B2Gold currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of C$6.01.

B2Gold Price Performance

The company’s 50 day simple moving average is C$3.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is C$3.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 7.51, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 3.33. The stock has a market cap of C$3.80 billion, a P/E ratio of -4.73, a P/E/G ratio of -0.27 and a beta of 1.23.

B2Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Investors of record on Thursday, March 20th were given a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.95%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently -25.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other B2Gold news, Senior Officer William Lytle sold 54,062 shares of B2Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of C$3.85, for a total value of C$208,138.70. Also, Senior Officer Eduard Bartz sold 27,862 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of C$3.89, for a total transaction of C$108,383.18. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 16 shares of the company’s stock, valued at C$62.24. This represents a 99.94 % decrease in their position. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 168,420 shares of company stock valued at $649,531. 0.66% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.