Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $56.54 and last traded at $56.4190, with a volume of 1395846 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $54.27.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAAS has been the subject of a number of research reports. Zacks Research lowered shares of Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Monday, December 29th. CIBC increased their price objective on shares of Pan American Silver from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Wall Street Zen cut Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their target price on Pan American Silver from $36.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $44.33.

Pan American Silver Stock Up 3.3%

The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $37.70. The company has a market capitalization of $23.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.31, a PEG ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.01). The firm had revenue of $854.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $867.76 million. Pan American Silver had a return on equity of 11.66% and a net margin of 19.52%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.32 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Shareholders of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a $0.14 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. This is a positive change from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Pan American Silver’s payout ratio is 32.37%.

Institutional Trading of Pan American Silver

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PAAS. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 48.6% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 19,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $504,000 after acquiring an additional 6,391 shares in the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp lifted its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 574.9% during the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 19,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $504,000 after purchasing an additional 16,626 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Pan American Silver by 31.6% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,499,343 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,728,000 after purchasing an additional 360,283 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC purchased a new position in Pan American Silver during the 1st quarter worth $1,272,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Pan American Silver by 189.0% during the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 107,952 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,788,000 after buying an additional 70,593 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.43% of the company’s stock.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE: PAAS) is a Vancouver-based mining company and one of the world’s largest primary silver producers. The company’s core activities encompass the exploration, development, extraction and processing of silver, with significant by-product production of gold, zinc and lead. Pan American Silver maintains a vertically integrated operating model, covering the full mining value chain from resource discovery through to refined metal production.

With a geographic footprint concentrated across the Americas, Pan American Silver operates multiple mines in Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia, and is advancing several development and exploration projects in Chile and Ecuador.