Employees Retirement System of Texas Takes Position in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM)

Employees Retirement System of Texas bought a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 13,870 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $780,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,534,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,154,843,000 after buying an additional 1,231,999 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,672,518 shares of the company’s stock worth $994,733,000 after buying an additional 281,123 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 15,529,219 shares of the company’s stock worth $873,995,000 after buying an additional 863,306 shares during the last quarter. Royal Bank of Canada grew its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 5.0% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 9,424,930 shares of the company’s stock worth $530,057,000 after buying an additional 447,702 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in Wheaton Precious Metals during the 4th quarter worth $472,648,000. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on WPM. National Bankshares restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Wednesday, April 23rd. Scotiabank boosted their price target on Wheaton Precious Metals from $79.00 to $87.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Stifel Canada upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Raymond James boosted their price target on Wheaton Precious Metals from $88.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, May 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, ten have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $85.90.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Up 2.5%

Shares of WPM stock opened at $86.67 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $39.33 billion, a PE ratio of 64.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.49. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $79.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $68.97. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 52-week low of $51.96 and a 52-week high of $87.42.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 8th. The company reported $0.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.50 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $470.41 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $446.33 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 50.05%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s quarterly revenue was up 58.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.36 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 10th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 28th will be issued a $0.165 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 28th. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.76%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is 48.53%.

Wheaton Precious Metals Company Profile

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.