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

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) saw unusually large options trading activity on Monday. Stock investors bought 35,322 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 68% compared to the average daily volume of 21,022 call options.

Institutional Trading of Pan American Silver

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 151.8% in the third quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 642 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 387 shares during the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in Pan American Silver in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $36,000. Trust Co. of Vermont purchased a new position in Pan American Silver during the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,000. City State Bank lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 74.4% during the 3rd quarter. City State Bank now owns 1,020 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 435 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 93.6% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,028 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 497 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 55.43% of the company’s stock.

Pan American Silver Stock Performance

PAAS opened at $64.87 on Tuesday. Pan American Silver has a 52-week low of $20.55 and a 52-week high of $69.99. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The company has a market cap of $27.36 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.67. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $50.29 and its 200-day moving average price is $39.98.

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

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Investors of record on Monday, November 24th were paid a $0.14 dividend. This is a positive change from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. The ex-dividend date was Monday, November 24th. This represents a $0.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.37%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on PAAS shares. CIBC lifted their price target on Pan American Silver from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a report on Friday, October 10th. Wall Street Zen raised Pan American Silver from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Zacks Research lowered Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of Pan American Silver from $47.00 to $64.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and four have given a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $47.83.

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.