Financial Contrast: B2Gold Corp (NYSE:BTG) vs. Royal Gold (RGLD)

B2Gold Corp (NYSE: BTG) and Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their dividends, valuation, earnings, analyst recommendations, institutional ownership, profitabiliy and risk.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a breakdown of current ratings and price targets for B2Gold Corp and Royal Gold, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
B2Gold Corp	0	2	8	0	2.80
Royal Gold	0	5	7	0	2.58

B2Gold Corp currently has a consensus price target of $4.94, suggesting a potential upside of 90.64%. Royal Gold has a consensus price target of $89.95, suggesting a potential upside of 6.74%. Given B2Gold Corp’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe B2Gold Corp is more favorable than Royal Gold.

Dividends

Royal Gold pays an annual dividend of $0.96 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. B2Gold Corp does not pay a dividend. Royal Gold pays out 61.1% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Royal Gold has increased its dividend for 12 consecutive years.

Profitability

This table compares B2Gold Corp and Royal Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
B2Gold Corp	N/A	N/A	N/A
Royal Gold	23.93%	4.22%	3.11%

Insider and Institutional Ownership

70.6% of Royal Gold shares are held by institutional investors. 1.4% of Royal Gold shares are held by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares B2Gold Corp and Royal Gold’s top-line revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	EBITDA	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
B2Gold Corp	$685.30 million	3.69	$318.37 million	N/A	N/A
Royal Gold	$424.25 million	12.98	$295.02 million	$1.57	53.68

B2Gold Corp has higher revenue and earnings than Royal Gold.

Summary

Royal Gold beats B2Gold Corp on 8 of the 15 factors compared between the two stocks.

About B2Gold Corp

B2Gold Corp. (B2Gold) is a Canada-based gold producer with approximately four operating mines and one mine under construction. The Company has a portfolio of other evaluation and exploration projects in various countries, including Mali, Colombia, Burkina Faso, Finland, Chile and Nicaragua. Its material mineral properties consist of three mines and one mine under construction: Otjikoto mine, an open pit gold mine located approximately 300 kilometers north of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia (Otjikoto Mine); Masbate mine, an open pit gold mine, located near the northern tip of the island of Masbate, over 360 kilometers south-east of Manila (Masbate Gold Project); La Libertad mine, an open pit gold mine located over 110 kilometers due east of Managua and 32 kilometers northeast of Juigalpa, Nicaragua (La Libertad Mine), and Fekola gold project, an open pit gold mine under construction located approximately 40 kilometers south of the city of Kenieba, Mali (Fekola Project).

About Royal Gold

Royal Gold, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, is engaged in acquiring and managing precious metal streams, royalties and similar interests. The Company operates through two segments: Acquisition and Management of Stream Interests, and Acquisition and Management of Royalty Interests. Its assets are located in Canada, Chile, Dominican Republic, Mexico, the United States, Africa, Australia and Other. As of June 30, 2016, the Company owned stream interests on four producing properties and three development-stage properties. It has investments in stream interests relating to Pueblo Viejo, Andacollo, Wassa and Prestea, and Rainy River. As of June 30, 2016, the Company owned royalty interests on 34 producing properties, 21 development-stage properties and 131 exploration-stage properties, of which it considered 50 to be evaluation-stage projects.