Groupama Asset Managment Buys Shares of 30,047 Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. $WPM

Key Points

• Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new stake of 30,047 shares (~$3.36M) in Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM) during Q3, and institutional investors now own about 70.34% of the stock.
• Analysts are broadly positive—12 Buys vs. 2 Holds—giving a consensus "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $145.18, with several recent upgrades and target increases.
• Wheaton reported strong quarterly results (EPS $1.22 vs. $0.91 est.; revenue $864.7M, +127% YoY) and raised its quarterly dividend to $0.195 (annualized $0.78, ~0.6% yield).

Groupama Asset Managment purchased a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM - Free Report) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 30,047 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,360,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in WPM. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals in the third quarter valued at about $26,000. Root Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in Wheaton Precious Metals during the third quarter worth about $29,000. Triumph Capital Management bought a new position in Wheaton Precious Metals during the third quarter worth about $33,000. Pacifica Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 27.8% during the 3rd quarter. Pacifica Partners Inc. now owns 460 shares of the company's stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Concord Wealth Partners acquired a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals during the 3rd quarter worth about $61,000. 70.34% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on WPM. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $175.00 to $178.00 and gave the company a "sector outperform" rating in a research report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "buy" rating and set a $145.00 price objective on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $115.00 to $130.00 in a report on Wednesday, December 10th. UBS Group reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $158.00 target price on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Saturday, March 14th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $145.18.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Performance

NYSE WPM opened at $121.17 on Friday. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a 52 week low of $68.03 and a 52 week high of $165.76. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $143.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $120.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.40, a PEG ratio of 1.93 and a beta of 0.50.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 12th. The company reported $1.22 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.91 by $0.31. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 63.58% and a return on equity of 17.17%. The firm had revenue of $864.71 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $719.59 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 127.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.46 EPS for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 10th. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.195 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 31st. This is a positive change from Wheaton Precious Metals's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.6%. Wheaton Precious Metals's dividend payout ratio is presently 20.37%.

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.

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