Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Shares Gap Up – Should You Buy?

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS)’s stock price gapped up prior to trading on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $26.70, but opened at $27.37. Pan American Silver shares last traded at $27.08, with a volume of 801,249 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

PAAS has been the subject of several research reports. TD Securities cut Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Pan American Silver from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com cut Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, December 1st. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on Pan American Silver from $28.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $27.92.

Pan American Silver Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $9.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 82.89 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 0.96. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $23.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $22.51.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.35 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.35. The firm had revenue of $815.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $805.20 million. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 3.98% and a return on equity of 6.14%. Equities research analysts predict that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pan American Silver Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a $0.10 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.51%. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio is presently 125.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,008,185 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $283,385,000 after purchasing an additional 221,561 shares during the last quarter. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 4.6% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 13,388,644 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $270,848,000 after buying an additional 584,017 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver during the 4th quarter worth $91,916,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 18.3% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,146,182 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $63,658,000 after buying an additional 486,622 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 32.2% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,027,461 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $40,776,000 after buying an additional 494,133 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.43% of the company’s stock.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. engages in the exploration, mine development, extraction, processing, refining, and reclamation of silver, gold, zinc, lead, and copper mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The company was formerly known as Pan American Minerals Corp. and changed its name to Pan American Silver Corp.