Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS)

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 15,351 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 86% compared to the average daily volume of 8,269 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pan American Silver

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 1.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,888,593 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $186,627,000 after buying an additional 183,681 shares in the last quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC raised its position in Pan American Silver by 14.1% in the fourth quarter. Ingalls & Snyder LLC now owns 1,609,577 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,284,000 after purchasing an additional 199,479 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver during the fourth quarter valued at about $751,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 98.2% during the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 184,662 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,674,000 after purchasing an additional 91,488 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 58.5% in the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 620,946 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $8,991,000 after buying an additional 229,223 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 55.43% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on PAAS shares. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price objective on shares of Pan American Silver from $14.00 to $17.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 22nd. StockNews.com raised Pan American Silver from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 1st. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price objective on shares of Pan American Silver from $27.00 to $22.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, January 18th. Scotiabank increased their target price on shares of Pan American Silver from $19.50 to $20.00 and gave the stock a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Monday, April 8th. Finally, TD Securities cut their price target on shares of Pan American Silver from $18.50 to $17.50 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Pan American Silver presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.00.

Pan American Silver Price Performance

NYSE:PAAS opened at $20.62 on Friday. Pan American Silver has a 52 week low of $12.16 and a 52 week high of $20.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 2.23. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.60 and its 200 day simple moving average is $15.24. The firm has a market cap of $7.49 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -68.73, a P/E/G ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.36.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $0.01 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.06) by $0.07. The business had revenue of $601.40 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $592.58 million. Pan American Silver had a positive return on equity of 0.44% and a negative net margin of 5.24%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 54.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Pan American Silver will post 0.38 earnings per share for the current year.

Pan American Silver Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 15th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 4th were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. Pan American Silver’s payout ratio is presently -133.33%.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. engages in the exploration, mine development, extraction, processing, refining, and reclamation of silver, gold, zinc, lead, and copper mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The company was formerly known as Pan American Minerals Corp. and changed its name to Pan American Silver Corp.