American Century Companies Inc. Increases Stock Holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM)

American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 5.0% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 615,705 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 29,147 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.14% of Wheaton Precious Metals worth $34,629,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in WPM. Versant Capital Management Inc purchased a new stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in the fourth quarter valued at about $29,000. Promus Capital LLC acquired a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd Zurich purchased a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the 4th quarter valued at $39,000. Finally, Quintet Private Bank Europe S.A. purchased a new position in Wheaton Precious Metals during the fourth quarter worth $39,000. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on WPM shares. Scotiabank increased their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Canada upgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $72.44.

Wheaton Precious Metals Price Performance

Shares of WPM stock opened at $76.86 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $68.44 and its 200-day simple moving average is $63.75. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 1-year low of $47.02 and a 1-year high of $77.86. The firm has a market cap of $34.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.36, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.77.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last announced 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). The company had revenue of $380.52 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $395.74 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 50.05% and a return on equity of 8.85%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.36 EPS. Analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. This is a positive change from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.86%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio is currently 56.90%.

Wheaton Precious Metals Company 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.