In the latest market close, B2Gold (BTG) reached $2.58, with a -1.53% movement compared to the previous day. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.23%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a drop of 0.17%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.34%.
Heading into today, shares of the gold, silver and copper miner had lost 7.09% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's loss of 2.98% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.96% in that time.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of B2Gold in its upcoming release. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $0.06, marking a 14.29% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $0.27 per share and a revenue of $1.81 billion, representing changes of -3.57% and -6.25%, respectively, from the prior year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for B2Gold. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.64% higher. B2Gold is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that B2Gold has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.86 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.97, so one might conclude that B2Gold is trading at a discount comparatively.
Meanwhile, BTG's PEG ratio is currently 0.42. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Mining - Gold industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.71.
The Mining - Gold industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 27, which puts it in the top 11% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
B2Gold Corp (BTG) : Free Stock Analysis Repor