Equitable Trust Co. Cuts Holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. $WPM

Equitable Trust Co. trimmed its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 18.3% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 33,903 shares of the company’s stock after selling 7,572 shares during the period. Equitable Trust Co.’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $3,984,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.5% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,079,029 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,242,969,000 after buying an additional 289,939 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,252,054 shares of the company’s stock worth $811,726,000 after buying an additional 244,027 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 6,955,810 shares of the company’s stock worth $777,938,000 after buying an additional 1,847,977 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 26.1% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 6,455,675 shares of the company’s stock worth $722,270,000 after buying an additional 1,335,588 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 4,481,459 shares of the company’s stock worth $402,435,000 after buying an additional 507,577 shares in the last quarter. 70.34% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Performance

Wheaton Precious Metals stock opened at $125.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $139.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $126.54. The company has a market capitalization of $56.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.66, a PEG ratio of 2.39 and a beta of 0.50. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $75.42 and a fifty-two week high of $165.76.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.31. The company had revenue of $864.71 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $719.59 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 17.17% and a net margin of 63.58%.Wheaton Precious Metals’s revenue was up 127.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.44 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 4.88 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 10th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st were given a dividend of $0.195 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.78 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.07%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WPM. Scotiabank increased their target price on Wheaton Precious Metals from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 16th. Wall Street Zen downgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. UBS Group upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 27th. TD Cowen upped their target price on Wheaton Precious Metals from $164.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Finally, TD Securities upped their target price on Wheaton Precious Metals from $164.00 to $165.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Thirteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $155.45.

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.