Clearbridge Investments LLC Sells 14,831 Shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM)

Clearbridge Investments LLC lowered its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 3.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 405,073 shares of the company’s stock after selling 14,831 shares during the period. Clearbridge Investments LLC’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $22,781,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 6.4% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 20,534,104 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,154,843,000 after acquiring an additional 1,231,999 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,672,518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $994,733,000 after purchasing an additional 281,123 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in the fourth quarter valued at $472,648,000. TD Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in 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 buying an additional 629,743 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Horizon Kinetics Asset Management LLC now owns 2,931,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $164,853,000 after buying an additional 177,071 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 70.34% of the company’s stock.

Wheaton Precious Metals Trading Down 1.0 %

NYSE WPM opened at $76.89 on Wednesday. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 1-year low of $48.00 and a 1-year high of $78.05. The company has a 50 day moving average of $69.19 and a 200-day moving average of $64.03. The firm has a market cap of $34.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.38, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.77.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.01). Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 50.05% and a return on equity of 8.85%. The business had revenue of $380.52 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $395.74 million. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 21.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast 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. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be issued a $0.165 dividend. This represents a $0.66 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.86%. This is a boost from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 1st. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is currently 56.90%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on WPM. Scotiabank increased their price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, March 17th. Stifel Canada upgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.44.

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.