Winmill & CO. Inc. Buys 117,000 Shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM)

Winmill & CO. Inc. increased its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 1,950.0% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 123,000 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 117,000 shares during the quarter. Wheaton Precious Metals accounts for approximately 2.2% of Winmill & CO. Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 21st largest position. Winmill & CO. Inc.’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $6,918,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Rathbones Group PLC boosted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Rathbones Group PLC now owns 15,993 shares of the company’s stock valued at $901,000 after buying an additional 530 shares during the last quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $7,800,000. Cerity Partners LLC increased its position in Wheaton Precious Metals by 11.1% during the 4th quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 19,213 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,102,000 after purchasing an additional 1,923 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 5.9% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,529,219 shares of the company’s stock valued at $873,995,000 after acquiring an additional 863,306 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in Wheaton Precious Metals by 10.9% during the fourth quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 69,139 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,888,000 after acquiring an additional 6,783 shares during the last quarter. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wheaton Precious Metals Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:WPM opened at $70.99 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $32.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.98, a P/E/G ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.74. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $70.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $64.32. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 1-year low of $49.41 and a 1-year high of $80.43.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.45 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $380.52 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $395.74 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 50.05% and a return on equity of 8.85%. The business’s revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.36 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.46 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 11th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.165 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.93%. This is a boost from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is presently 56.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Stifel Canada raised Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 4th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $75.00 to $80.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Finally, Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $75.00 to $88.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, nine have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.50.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. primarily sells precious metals in North America, Europe, and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, palladium, and cobalt deposits. The company was formerly known as Silver Wheaton Corp. and changed its name to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. in May 2017. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.