Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) Increases Dividend to $0.20 Per Share

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 12th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.195 per share on Friday, April 10th. This represents a c) dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This is a 18.2% increase from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

Wheaton Precious Metals has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 2 years. Wheaton Precious Metals has a dividend payout ratio of 29.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Wheaton Precious Metals to earn $1.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.66 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.1%.

Wheaton Precious Metals Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of NYSE:WPM traded down $2.14 during trading on Friday, hitting $143.59. 354,094 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,377,258. Wheaton Precious Metals has a 1-year low of $68.03 and a 1-year high of $165.76. The firm has a market cap of $65.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 65.44, a PEG ratio of 2.22 and a beta of 0.50. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $142.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $119.02.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported $1.22 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.31. The firm had revenue of $864.71 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $719.59 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 13.32% and a net margin of 54.72%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 127.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.44 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that Wheaton Precious Metals will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research downgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, March 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen raised Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, January 18th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research report on Sunday, December 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $115.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Wednesday, December 10th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $140.44.

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.