Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) Price Target Raised to $79.00

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) had its price target increased by Scotiabank from $78.00 to $79.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a sector outperform rating on the stock.

WPM has been the topic of a number of other reports. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Monday, November 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $78.00 price target on the stock. Stifel Canada raised shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $72.44.

Wheaton Precious Metals Trading Up 1.0 %

NYSE WPM opened at $76.28 on Monday. Wheaton Precious Metals has a 1-year low of $43.18 and a 1-year high of $77.44. The company has a market capitalization of $34.61 billion, a PE ratio of 56.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.76. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $62.99.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.01). Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 50.05%. The company had revenue of $380.52 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $395.74 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.36 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Wheaton Precious Metals will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of $0.165 per share. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.87%. This is an increase from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio is presently 49.25%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Wheaton Precious Metals

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of WPM. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the fourth quarter valued at about $472,648,000. Capital International Investors bought a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the fourth quarter valued at about $263,810,000. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 33.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 14,665,913 shares of the company’s stock valued at $895,723,000 after acquiring an additional 3,692,594 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership bought a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the fourth quarter valued at about $72,657,000. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,534,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,154,843,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231,999 shares during the period. 70.34% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

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.