Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) Sets New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) shares hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $125.62 and last traded at $124.1280, with a volume of 433657 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $117.87.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

WPM has been the subject of several analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $145.00 target price on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $135.00 to $160.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a report on Monday, December 29th. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 23rd. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada raised shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $115.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $130.78.

Wheaton Precious Metals Price Performance

The company has a market cap of $55.84 billion, a PE ratio of 55.91, a P/E/G ratio of 1.44 and a beta of 0.52. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $109.31 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $102.41.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The company reported $0.62 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $476.26 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $495.53 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 54.72%.The company’s revenue was up 54.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.34 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 20th were given a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, November 20th. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio is presently 30.00%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 18,789,090 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,102,611,000 after acquiring an additional 234,439 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Wheaton Precious Metals in the second quarter worth about $656,463,000. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 3.5% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,252,054 shares of the company’s stock valued at $811,726,000 after buying an additional 244,027 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. increased its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 36.2% in the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,955,810 shares of the company’s stock valued at $777,938,000 after buying an additional 1,847,977 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 26.1% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 6,455,675 shares of the company’s stock valued at $722,270,000 after buying an additional 1,335,588 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.