Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Upgraded to Hold at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

PAAS has been the topic of a number of other reports. Bank of America reduced their price target on shares of Pan American Silver from $77.00 to $69.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Scotiabank reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. BMO Capital Markets reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Thursday, August 13th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, TD Securities upgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a report on Monday, May 11th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $70.43.

Pan American Silver Stock Performance

Pan American Silver stock opened at $50.33 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $46.11 and its 200-day moving average is $52.76. The company has a market cap of $20.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.26 and a beta of 0.73. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a current ratio of 2.94 and a quick ratio of 2.23. Pan American Silver has a 12 month low of $30.68 and a 12 month high of $69.99.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.11). The firm had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. Pan American Silver had a return on equity of 20.01% and a net margin of 32.04%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Pan American Silver will post 4.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Monday, August 24th will be paid a dividend of $0.184 per share. This is a positive change from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. This represents a $0.74 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. Pan American Silver’s payout ratio is presently 21.75%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pan American Silver

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver during the second quarter worth about $375,948,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Pan American Silver in the fourth quarter valued at about $303,611,000. FIL Ltd boosted its holdings in Pan American Silver by 154.7% in the fourth quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 7,307,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $378,872,000 after purchasing an additional 4,438,478 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors acquired a new stake in Pan American Silver during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $215,484,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new stake in Pan American Silver during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $145,312,000. 55.43% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.