The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Acquires New Shares in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. $WPM

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company acquired a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 2,767,598 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $310,738,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned 0.61% of Wheaton Precious Metals at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 19,079,029 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,242,969,000 after acquiring an additional 289,939 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 10.7% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 14,469,877 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,700,517,000 after acquiring an additional 1,402,092 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 7,595,725 shares of the company’s stock worth $892,650,000 after purchasing an additional 93,599 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals during the fourth quarter worth about $864,977,000. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 7,285,275 shares of the company’s stock valued at $857,598,000 after purchasing an additional 33,221 shares in the last quarter. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on WPM shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $165.00 to $150.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, June 30th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $165.55.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Up 1.6%

NYSE:WPM opened at $160.25 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $119.91 and a 200 day simple moving average of $130.64. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 52-week low of $92.57 and a 52-week high of $165.76. The company has a market cap of $72.78 billion, a PE ratio of 35.53, a PEG ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a current ratio of 0.47.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 21.97% and a net margin of 64.66%.The firm had revenue of $878.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $879.29 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.63 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 84.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 4.8 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.195 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $0.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.29%.

Wheaton Precious Metals Company Profile

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.