American Century Companies Inc. Boosts Stock Position in B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in B2Gold Corp. (NYSE:BTG) by 31.3% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 22,658,771 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 5,401,334 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc.’s holdings in B2Gold were worth $55,436,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Old West Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in B2Gold in the third quarter worth about $670,000. FMR LLC increased its stake in shares of B2Gold by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 59,489,129 shares of the company’s stock worth $183,862,000 after purchasing an additional 438,399 shares during the last quarter. Invenomic Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of B2Gold in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $2,636,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in B2Gold by 46.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,075,521 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,544,000 after purchasing an additional 661,107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 36,555 shares during the period. 61.40% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

BTG has been the topic of several research reports. TD Securities lowered B2Gold from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of B2Gold from $3.30 to $3.60 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, March 20th. Cormark upgraded shares of B2Gold from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a research note on Friday, February 21st. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of B2Gold from a “buy” rating to an “underperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $4.12.

B2Gold Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of B2Gold stock opened at $3.09 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $2.68 and its 200-day moving average price is $2.84. The company has a market cap of $4.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -6.44, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.09. B2Gold Corp. has a 12-month low of $2.20 and a 12-month high of $3.50. The company has a current ratio of 1.83, a quick ratio of 1.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07.

B2Gold Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a $0.02 dividend. This represents a $0.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 7th. B2Gold’s payout ratio is -16.67%.

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.