B2Gold Corp. (BTG, Financial) has informed the stock market through a news release published on its website about the quarterly production of gold and revenue.
The third quarter of fiscal 2017 closed on September 30.
B2Gold Corp reports that production of gold – on a consolidated basis and including pre-commercial production the company did at Fekola Gold Mine in Mali – was 135,628 ounces in the quarter in question.
B2Gold Corp exceeded the gold production the miner re-forecasted at approximately 118,000 ounces thanks to “continued very strong operational performances of both the Masbate Mine in the Philippines and Otjikoto Mine in Namibia as well as the successful early start-up of the Fekola Mine in September”, the company says.
The Canadian miner is on schedule to produce approximately 570,000 ounces of gold, which is according to the upper limit of B2Gold Corp’s revised guidance on annual consolidated gold production. The lower limit of the guidance is 530,000. The cash operating cost per ounce of gold is expected by the company to range between $610 and $650, while the AISC is expected to range between $940 per ounce of gold sold and $970 per ounce of the yellow metal sold.
From the sale of one ounce of gold B2Gold Corp realized an average of $1,267, a 4.3% decline year over year, for a third quarter figure for revenue of $154.1 million, a 20.2% decrease from the comparable of fiscal 2016.
Despite a year over year decrease in the gold price and in the volume of gold ounces sold (121,597 ounces sold in the third quarter of 2017 versus 145,029 ounces sold in the third quarter of 2016), B2Gold Corp beat expectations on third quarter 2017 revenue by $9.02 million since analysts forecasted that the miner would have invoiced customers for about $145.08 million. This was – as you can see in the chart below – an average of 6 estimates of analysts who were surveyed. These six estimates ranged between a low of $109.6 million and a high of $153.9 million.
Source: Yahoo Finance
B2Gold Corp. will post complete financial results - including figures on earnings for the quarter in question - November 8 before the stock markets open.
For the third quarter of fiscal 2017, analysts expect B2Gold Corp will close with an EPS of 0 (zero). This figure is an average of twelve estimates that range between a loss of 2 cents (U.S. Dollars) per share and a profit of 2 cents per share.
Catalyst in this gold stock is represented by the Fekola Gold Mine in Mali where the first gold was poured last week and which production will enable the company, B2Gold Corp forecasts, to reach a 70% growth or even more in the total production of the yellow metal already in full fiscal year 2018.
B2Gold Corp is trading at $2.78 per share with a market capitalization of $2.7 billion.
The price-book (P/B) ratio is 1.70, the price-sales (P/S) ratio is 3.87, and the price-earnings (P/E) ratio is 50.24.
The enterprise value-EBITDA ratio is 12.71.
Disclosure: I have no positions in B2Gold.
