Sapient Capital LLC Invests $1.33 Million in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM)

Sapient Capital LLC bought a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm bought 26,963 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,330,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPM. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI boosted its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 0.4% during the third quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 57,361 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,326,000 after buying an additional 250 shares in the last quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 3.6% in the 3rd quarter. Transatlantique Private Wealth LLC now owns 7,808 shares of the company’s stock valued at $317,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares in the last quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in Wheaton Precious Metals by 30.8% during the fourth quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,159 shares of the company’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 273 shares in the last quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. grew its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 2.1% in the third quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 14,691 shares of the company’s stock valued at $596,000 after purchasing an additional 302 shares during the period. Finally, Syon Capital LLC increased its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 4.9% in the fourth quarter. Syon Capital LLC now owns 6,575 shares of the company’s stock valued at $324,000 after buying an additional 308 shares in the last quarter. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on WPM. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $60.00 to $59.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 28th. TD Securities upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $51.00 to $53.00 in a report on Monday, March 18th. Raymond James reduced their target price on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 22nd. National Bank Financial downgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.32.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Performance

WPM stock traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $52.69. The company had a trading volume of 1,788,139 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,210,873. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $47.84 and a 200 day simple moving average of $46.82. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $38.37 and a fifty-two week high of $54.45. The company has a market capitalization of $23.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.17 and a beta of 0.75.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 52.92% and a return on equity of 7.76%. The company had revenue of $313.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $284.29 million. As a group, analysts predict that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, April 3rd were issued a $0.155 dividend. This is an increase from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. This represents a $0.62 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.18%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 2nd. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio is presently 52.10%.

Wheaton Precious Metals Company Profile

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. primarily sells precious metals in North America, Europe, and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, palladium, and cobalt deposits. The company was formerly known as Silver Wheaton Corp. and changed its name to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. in May 2017. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.