Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. $WPM Shares Purchased by Lazard Asset Management LLC

Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 21.3% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 84,467 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,824 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $11,090,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals during the 4th quarter worth $864,977,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 40.9% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 5,912,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $694,951,000 after purchasing an additional 1,715,540 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in 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 valued at $1,700,517,000 after purchasing an additional 1,402,092 shares during the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd lifted its position in Wheaton Precious Metals by 1,655.4% during the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 1,245,766 shares of the company’s stock worth $139,333,000 after buying an additional 1,174,799 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Wheaton Precious Metals by 2,621.8% during the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 903,678 shares of the company’s stock worth $106,239,000 after buying an additional 870,476 shares during the period. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on WPM. Wall Street Zen cut Wheaton Precious Metals from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, May 16th. Jefferies Financial Group decreased their target price on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $182.00 to $177.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 6th. Bank of America dropped their price target on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $163.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Weiss Ratings lowered shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 16th. 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 note on Tuesday, June 30th. Twelve equities 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 currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $165.55.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Performance

NYSE WPM opened at $109.34 on Thursday. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a one year low of $90.39 and a one year high of $165.76. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $116.50 and its 200 day moving average price is $131.43. The firm has a market capitalization of $49.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.61, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.55.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 7th. The company reported $1.28 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.24 by $0.04. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 65.55% and a return on equity of 20.20%. The company had revenue of $901.47 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $868.35 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.55 earnings per share. Wheaton Precious Metals’s revenue for the quarter was up 91.7% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 4.73 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 9th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 27th were issued a dividend of $0.195 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, May 27th. This represents a $0.78 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is presently 19.70%.

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.