Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Saturday.

FNV has been the subject of several other reports. Zacks Research cut shares of Franco-Nevada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Canaccord Genuity Group cut shares of Franco-Nevada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, January 23rd. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Franco-Nevada in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $310.00 target price on shares of Franco-Nevada in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Franco-Nevada from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $257.25.

Franco-Nevada Trading Down 1.7%

NYSE FNV opened at $257.98 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $254.90 and a 200 day simple moving average of $228.02. The company has a market cap of $49.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 0.47. Franco-Nevada has a 1 year low of $152.89 and a 1 year high of $285.67.

Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, March 10th. The basic materials company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $597.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $542.02 million. Franco-Nevada had a net margin of 61.01% and a return on equity of 15.62%. Franco-Nevada’s quarterly revenue was up 86.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.95 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Franco-Nevada will post 7.81 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Franco-Nevada

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in FNV. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Franco-Nevada in the 4th quarter valued at $578,577,000. First Eagle Investment Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 26.5% in the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 5,123,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,062,037,000 after buying an additional 1,074,257 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 76.0% in the 3rd quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,363,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $525,925,000 after buying an additional 1,020,509 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 12.8% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,441,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,542,402,000 after buying an additional 842,132 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Research Global Investors raised its stake in shares of Franco-Nevada by 100.2% in the 4th quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 1,277,889 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $264,882,000 after buying an additional 639,493 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.06% of the company’s stock.

Franco-Nevada Company Profile

Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Toronto-based royalty and streaming company that specializes in securing and managing long-term interests in mining properties. The firm focuses primarily on precious metals, particularly gold, while also holding interests related to silver, copper, platinum-group metals and select base metals. Rather than operating mines directly, Franco-Nevada acquires royalty and streaming agreements that entitle it to a percentage of production or revenue from producing and developing assets in exchange for upfront or staged financing.

The company’s business model centers on providing capital to mining companies in return for a sustained share of production or metal revenue, which can reduce exposure to operating and capital cost risks typical of mine operators.