Head-To-Head Review: Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS) and B2Gold (NYSE:BTG)

Pan American Silver (NASDAQ:PAAS – Get Rating) and B2Gold (NYSE:BTG – Get Rating) are both mid-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will compare the two companies based on the strength of their earnings, dividends, risk, institutional ownership, valuation, profitability and analyst recommendations.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent ratings and price targets for Pan American Silver and B2Gold, as provided by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Pan American Silver	0	1	5	0	2.83
B2Gold	0	0	1	0	3.00

Pan American Silver presently has a consensus price target of $40.60, suggesting a potential upside of 42.01%. B2Gold has a consensus price target of $9.25, suggesting a potential upside of 98.92%. Given B2Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe B2Gold is more favorable than Pan American Silver.

Profitability

This table compares Pan American Silver and B2Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Pan American Silver	5.98%	6.16%	4.68%
B2Gold	23.84%	13.69%	11.27%

Institutional and Insider Ownership

44.7% of Pan American Silver shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 61.6% of B2Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. 12.9% of Pan American Silver shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Dividends

Pan American Silver pays an annual dividend of $0.48 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.7%. B2Gold pays an annual dividend of $0.16 per share and has a dividend yield of 3.4%. Pan American Silver pays out 104.3% of its earnings in the form of a dividend, suggesting it may not have sufficient earnings to cover its dividend payment in the future. B2Gold pays out 40.0% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Pan American Silver has raised its dividend for 3 consecutive years. B2Gold is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and lower payout ratio.

Risk and Volatility

Pan American Silver has a beta of 1.27, suggesting that its share price is 27% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, B2Gold has a beta of 0.98, suggesting that its share price is 2% less volatile than the S&P 500.

Valuation & Earnings

This table compares Pan American Silver and B2Gold’s revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Pan American Silver	$1.63 billion	3.69	$97.43 million	$0.46	62.15
B2Gold	$1.76 billion	2.79	$420.07 million	$0.40	11.63

B2Gold has higher revenue and earnings than Pan American Silver. B2Gold is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Pan American Silver, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Summary

B2Gold beats Pan American Silver on 10 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.

Pan American Silver Company Profile (Get Rating)

Pan American Silver Corp. engages in the exploration, development, extraction, processing, refining, and reclamation of mineral properties. It owns and operates silver mines located in Peru, Mexico, Argentina, and Bolivia. The firm operates through the following segments: Silver, Gold, and Other. The company was founded by Ross J. Beaty and John J. Wright in April 1994 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.

B2Gold Company Profile (Get Rating)

B2Gold Corp. operates as a gold producer with three operating mines in Mali, the Philippines, and Namibia. It operates the Fekola Mine in Mali, the Masbate Mine in the Philippines, and the Otjikoto Mine in Namibia. The company also has an 25% interest in the Calibre Mining Corp.; and approximately 19% interest in BeMetals Corp. In addition, it has a portfolio of other evaluation and exploration assets in Mali, Uzbekistan, and Finland. The company was incorporated in 2006 and is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada.