Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) Shares Bought by Korea Investment CORP

Korea Investment CORP lifted its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 55.8% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 294,909 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 105,573 shares during the quarter. Korea Investment CORP’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $16,591,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its holdings 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 acquiring an additional 1,231,999 shares in the last quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp lifted its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 1,865.2% during the third quarter. BRITISH COLUMBIA INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT Corp now owns 1,245,534 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,061,000 after purchasing an additional 1,182,156 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc. now owns 7,156,818 shares of the company’s stock worth $402,627,000 after purchasing an additional 629,743 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 21.3% in the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 2,923,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $178,551,000 after purchasing an additional 513,890 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 5,754.4% in the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 485,914 shares of the company’s stock valued at $27,328,000 after buying an additional 477,614 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.34% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

WPM has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Scotiabank increased their target price on Wheaton Precious Metals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Canada upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.44.

Wheaton Precious Metals Price Performance

Shares of WPM opened at $76.86 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $34.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 57.36, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.77. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 12 month low of $47.02 and a 12 month high of $77.86. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $68.44 and a 200 day moving average price of $63.78.

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

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This is a boost from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is 56.90%.

Wheaton Precious Metals 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.