The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Takes Position in Pan American Silver Corp. $PAAS

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company bought a new position in Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 3,247,246 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $145,312,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAAS. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,465,779 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $905,513,000 after purchasing an additional 274,168 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 9.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,898,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $383,365,000 after buying an additional 882,135 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Pan American Silver during the second quarter valued at approximately $375,948,000. FIL Ltd raised its holdings in shares of 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 worth $378,872,000 after buying an additional 4,438,478 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver in the fourth quarter worth approximately $303,611,000. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on PAAS. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Pan American Silver from $54.00 to $53.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 6th. TD Securities upgraded Pan American Silver from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $72.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Scotiabank reiterated an “outperform” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Zacks Research upgraded Pan American Silver from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 18th. Finally, Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Pan American Silver from $77.00 to $69.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 9th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Pan American Silver has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $70.43.

Pan American Silver Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:PAAS opened at $53.58 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $22.35 billion, a PE ratio of 16.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 0.73. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $46.37 and its 200-day simple moving average is $52.72. Pan American Silver Corp. has a one year low of $32.32 and a one year high of $69.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a current ratio of 2.94.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last announced its quarterly 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 during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.16 billion. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 32.04% and a return on equity of 20.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.43 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 4.06 EPS for the current year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.184 per share. This represents a $0.74 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 24th. This is an increase from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 21.75%.

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.