Pan American Silver Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PAAS)

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) saw unusually large options trading on Monday. Investors purchased 20,388 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 10% compared to the average volume of 18,507 call options.

Institutional Trading of Pan American Silver

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Moneda S.A. Administradora General de Fondos bought a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $567,000. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd raised its position in Pan American Silver by 19.9% during the third quarter. Swiss Life Asset Management Ltd now owns 40,036 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,553,000 after purchasing an additional 6,644 shares in the last quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC acquired a new position in Pan American Silver during the third quarter valued at approximately $113,000. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 108.2% during the third quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 25,241 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $978,000 after purchasing an additional 13,116 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Advisory Services Network LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 53.3% in the 3rd quarter. Advisory Services Network LLC now owns 11,931 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $462,000 after purchasing an additional 4,148 shares in the last quarter. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAAS has been the subject of several analyst reports. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Monday, December 22nd. Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Pan American Silver from $36.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 23rd. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, November 15th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and issued a $50.00 target price on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Sunday, December 7th. Finally, National Bank Financial upgraded Pan American Silver to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $44.33.

Pan American Silver Stock Performance

NYSE PAAS opened at $52.16 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $22.01 billion, a PE ratio of 30.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a current ratio of 2.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $42.31 and a 200-day moving average of $36.18. Pan American Silver has a 52-week low of $19.80 and a 52-week high of $55.85.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.49 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $854.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $867.76 million. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 19.52% and a return on equity of 11.66%. The firm’s revenue was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.32 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Pan American Silver will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a dividend of $0.14 per share. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. This is an increase from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio is 32.37%.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE: PAAS) is a Vancouver-based mining company and one of the world’s largest primary silver producers. The company’s core activities encompass the exploration, development, extraction and processing of silver, with significant by-product production of gold, zinc and lead. Pan American Silver maintains a vertically integrated operating model, covering the full mining value chain from resource discovery through to refined metal production.

With a geographic footprint concentrated across the Americas, Pan American Silver operates multiple mines in Mexico, Peru, Argentina and Bolivia, and is advancing several development and exploration projects in Chile and Ecuador.