Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) Stake Lifted by West Family Investments Inc.

West Family Investments Inc. increased its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 0.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 43,849 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 316 shares during the quarter. West Family Investments Inc.’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $2,164,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 9.9% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,521,065 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,012,517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,856,031 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 10.4% in the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,585,266 shares of the company’s stock worth $307,583,000 after acquiring an additional 713,381 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 20,998,263 shares of the company’s stock worth $851,480,000 after acquiring an additional 644,746 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp lifted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 18.3% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 3,411,151 shares of the company’s stock worth $133,849,000 after acquiring an additional 527,358 shares in the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 22.1% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 2,586,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $104,895,000 after purchasing an additional 468,782 shares in the last quarter. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on WPM. Raymond James reduced their price target on Wheaton Precious Metals from $60.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 22nd. TD Securities upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $51.00 to $53.00 in a report on Monday, March 18th. Jefferies Financial Group lifted their price target on Wheaton Precious Metals from $52.00 to $61.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, April 22nd. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on Wheaton Precious Metals from $61.00 to $59.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Finally, National Bank Financial lowered Wheaton Precious Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 21st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $59.32.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE WPM traded down $0.03 during trading on Thursday, hitting $52.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 472,010 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,116,019. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $47.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $46.71. The firm has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.07 and a beta of 0.75. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 52 week low of $38.37 and a 52 week high of $54.45.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 14th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.32 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $313.47 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $284.29 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 7.76% and a net margin of 52.92%. On average, equities analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.25 earnings per share for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 3rd were paid a $0.155 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 2nd. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.17%. This is a positive change from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is currently 52.10%.

Wheaton Precious Metals 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.