Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Shares Gap Down – Should You Sell?

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday . The stock had previously closed at $55.81, but opened at $52.95. Pan American Silver shares last traded at $52.43, with a volume of 2,065,697 shares.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have weighed in on PAAS. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their target price on Pan American Silver from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, February 22nd. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Scotiabank boosted their target price on shares of Pan American Silver from $47.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, January 26th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $56.60.

Pan American Silver Trading Down 7.0%

The company has a current ratio of 2.69, a quick ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock has a market cap of $21.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.81, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.62. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $59.31 and a 200-day simple moving average of $47.52.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.90 by $0.21. The company had revenue of $1.18 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.11 billion. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 27.07% and a return on equity of 16.38%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 44.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 13th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This is an increase from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.14. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 2nd. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio is 28.80%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pan American Silver

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Pan American Silver by 51.8% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 45,142,060 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,748,355,000 after purchasing an additional 15,405,762 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver in the 4th quarter valued at $303,611,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Pan American Silver in the third quarter worth $178,004,000. Finally, FIL Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 154.7% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 7,307,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $378,872,000 after acquiring an additional 4,438,478 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.