Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) Cut to “Buy” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday morning.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on WPM. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. TD Securities raised their price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $164.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. UBS Group raised Wheaton Precious Metals from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a report on Friday. Zacks Research lowered Wheaton Precious Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $115.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $145.36.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Down 0.8%

Wheaton Precious Metals stock opened at $123.67 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $141.98 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $121.32. Wheaton Precious Metals has a 52-week low of $68.03 and a 52-week high of $165.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $56.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.17, a PEG ratio of 1.79 and a beta of 0.50.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.31. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 17.17% and a net margin of 63.58%.The company had revenue of $864.71 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.59 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 127.3% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.195 per share. This is a boost from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 31st. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 20.37%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in WPM. Parvin Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Parvin Asset Management LLC now owns 11,925 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,401,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 20,465 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,405,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 4,203 shares of the company’s stock worth $494,000 after purchasing an additional 78 shares during the period. Gables Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 7.9% during the fourth quarter. Gables Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,079 shares of the company’s stock valued at $127,000 after purchasing an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Focus Financial Network Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 2.5% during the fourth quarter. Focus Financial Network Inc. now owns 3,305 shares of the company’s stock valued at $388,000 after purchasing an additional 81 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 70.34% of the company’s stock.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. is a Canada-based precious metals streaming company that acquires and manages long-term purchase agreements for metals produced by mining companies. Rather than operating mines, Wheaton provides upfront and ongoing financing to miners in exchange for the right to purchase a portion of the metals produced — typically silver and gold, and occasionally other precious metals — at predetermined prices. This streaming business model offers investors exposure to metal production with reduced operating and capital-cost risk compared with traditional mining companies.

The company’s activities center on structuring and maintaining a diversified portfolio of streaming agreements across multiple jurisdictions.