Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday morning.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on PAAS. CIBC lifted their price objective on shares of Pan American Silver from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a “hold” rating and issued a $50.00 price target on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Pan American Silver from $36.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pan American Silver currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.33.

Pan American Silver Trading Up 2.6%

Shares of PAAS stock opened at $55.68 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $23.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.67. Pan American Silver has a 1 year low of $20.35 and a 1 year high of $56.69. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $37.89.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.01). Pan American Silver had a net margin of 19.52% and a return on equity of 11.66%. The company had revenue of $854.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $867.76 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. Pan American Silver’s revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Pan American Silver will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were issued a dividend of $0.14 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. This is a positive change from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pan American Silver

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Pan American Silver by 51.8% during the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 45,142,060 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,748,355,000 after purchasing an additional 15,405,762 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Pan American Silver by 21.2% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,191,611 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $666,192,000 after buying an additional 3,006,055 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. grew its stake in Pan American Silver by 38.7% in the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 14,462,912 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $560,149,000 after purchasing an additional 4,037,311 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Pan American Silver by 9.8% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,898,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $383,365,000 after purchasing an additional 882,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Pan American Silver by 5,674.3% during the 2nd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,141,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $174,406,000 after purchasing an additional 6,034,755 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.43% of the company’s stock.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE: PAAS) is a Vancouver-based mining company and one of the world’s largest primary silver producers. The company’s core activities encompass the exploration, development, extraction and processing of silver, with significant by-product production of gold, zinc and lead. Pan American Silver maintains a vertically integrated operating model, covering the full mining value chain from resource discovery through to refined metal production.

With a geographic footprint concentrated across the Americas, Pan American Silver operates multiple mines in Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia, and is advancing several development and exploration projects in Chile and Ecuador.