B2Gold Corp. Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.04 (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG)

B2Gold Corp. (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 9th, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, June 11th will be given a dividend of 0.04 per share by the basic materials company on Monday, June 24th. This represents a $0.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 11th.

B2Gold has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.3% per year over the last three years. B2Gold has a dividend payout ratio of 38.1% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect B2Gold to earn $0.42 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.16 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 38.1%.

B2Gold Stock Up 5.7 %

BTG traded up $0.15 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $2.77. 11,953,336 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,858,268. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $2.85. B2Gold has a 52 week low of $2.34 and a 52 week high of $4.29. The firm has a market cap of $3.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 131.07, a PEG ratio of 1.50 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 2.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04.

B2Gold (NYSEAMERICAN:BTG) (TSE:BTO) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $0.06 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.05 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $461.40 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $453.81 million. B2Gold had a return on equity of 9.09% and a net margin of 0.31%. B2Gold’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.08 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that B2Gold will post 0.25 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

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.