Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Sets New 52-Week High Following Analyst Upgrade

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) hit a new 52-week high on Monday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $47.00 to $64.00. Scotiabank currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Pan American Silver traded as high as $69.99 and last traded at $68.6260, with a volume of 2981936 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $64.50.

PAAS has been the subject of several other research reports. Bank of America increased their price target on Pan American Silver from $46.00 to $51.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, December 1st. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on shares of Pan American Silver from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered shares of Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Pan American Silver presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $47.83.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Pan American Silver

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of PAAS. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in Pan American Silver by 51.8% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 45,142,060 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,748,355,000 after acquiring an additional 15,405,762 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 21.2% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 17,191,611 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $666,192,000 after purchasing an additional 3,006,055 shares in the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 38.7% during the third quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 14,462,912 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $560,149,000 after purchasing an additional 4,037,311 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 9.8% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,898,397 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $383,365,000 after purchasing an additional 882,135 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in Pan American Silver by 5,674.3% during the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,141,108 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $174,406,000 after buying an additional 6,034,755 shares in the last quarter. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Pan American Silver Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $27.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 0.67. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $50.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $39.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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). The company had revenue of $854.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $867.76 million. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 19.52% and a return on equity of 11.66%. Pan American Silver’s revenue was up 19.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. Analysts predict that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 1.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

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