American Century Companies Inc. Buys 3,474,553 Shares of B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG)

American Century Companies Inc. lifted its position in B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG) by 39.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 12,284,484 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,474,553 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned approximately 0.94% of B2Gold worth $33,053,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Continuum Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in B2Gold in the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,000. Baader Bank Aktiengesellschaft purchased a new stake in shares of B2Gold during the second quarter valued at approximately $42,000. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in B2Gold during the second quarter worth $57,000. Raymond James Trust N.A. boosted its position in B2Gold by 69.3% in the second quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 22,615 shares of the company’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 9,258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC grew its stake in B2Gold by 32.8% in the 2nd quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 34,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after purchasing an additional 8,463 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on BTG. Scotiabank downgraded shares of B2Gold from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, August 9th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their target price on shares of B2Gold from $3.50 to $4.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 12th. Cibc World Mkts upgraded shares of B2Gold from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 14th. StockNews.com upgraded B2Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 17th. Finally, CIBC increased their price objective on B2Gold from $3.40 to $3.50 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, B2Gold presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $3.75.

B2Gold Stock Down 1.5 %

NYSE BTG opened at $3.29 on Wednesday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $2.86. The company has a market capitalization of $4.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -109.67, a P/E/G ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.14. B2Gold Corp. has a 12-month low of $2.34 and a 12-month high of $3.46. The company has a current ratio of 2.93, a quick ratio of 1.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.01.

B2Gold (NYSE:BTG) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, August 8th. The company reported $0.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.08 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $492.57 million for the quarter. B2Gold had a positive return on equity of 8.01% and a negative net margin of 7.44%. Equities analysts expect that B2Gold Corp. will post 0.27 EPS for the current year.

B2Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, September 10th will be given a dividend of $0.04 per share. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, September 10th. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is presently -533.33%.

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.