B2Gold Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:BTG)

B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG) saw unusually large options trading on Thursday. Traders bought 14,078 put options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 257% compared to the average daily volume of 3,947 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Old West Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of B2Gold during the third quarter valued at approximately $670,000. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of B2Gold by 0.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 59,489,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $183,862,000 after buying an additional 438,399 shares during the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of B2Gold during the third quarter valued at approximately $2,636,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of B2Gold by 46.7% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,075,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,544,000 after buying an additional 661,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets boosted its position in shares of B2Gold by 62.0% during the third quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 95,482 shares of the company’s stock valued at $294,000 after buying an additional 36,555 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 61.40% of the company’s stock.

B2Gold Stock Down 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE:BTG opened at $3.12 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $2.65 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $2.83. The firm has a market cap of $4.11 billion, a P/E ratio of -6.50, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.09. 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 has a 52-week low of $2.20 and a 52-week high of $3.50.

B2Gold Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.02 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $0.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.56%. B2Gold’s dividend payout ratio is presently -16.67%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. TD Securities cut B2Gold from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Cormark raised B2Gold from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. CIBC increased their price target on B2Gold from $3.30 to $3.60 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Bank of America lowered B2Gold from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $4.12.

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.