Vontobel Holding Ltd. Has $1.72 Million Stock Holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) by 15.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 34,869 shares of the company’s stock after selling 6,156 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals were worth $1,720,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in WPM. Sprott Inc. boosted its holdings in Wheaton Precious Metals by 4.8% during the third quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 799,533 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,421,000 after purchasing an additional 36,654 shares in the last quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC grew its position in Wheaton Precious Metals by 31.4% in the fourth quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 408,449 shares of the company’s stock valued at $20,153,000 after acquiring an additional 97,535 shares during the period. Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in Wheaton Precious Metals by 4.4% during the third quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,623,133 shares of the company’s stock worth $146,918,000 after acquiring an additional 152,826 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 98.8% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 71,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,922,000 after acquiring an additional 35,616 shares during the period. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co lifted its holdings in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals by 2,400.0% during the fourth quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 1,250 shares of the company’s stock valued at $62,000 after acquiring an additional 1,200 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 70.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on WPM. National Bank Financial cut shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 21st. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $49.00 target price for the company. TD Securities upgraded Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $51.00 to $53.00 in a research report on Monday, March 18th. CIBC lifted their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $66.00 to $70.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 7th. Finally, Berenberg Bank increased their target price on Wheaton Precious Metals from $52.00 to $54.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 27th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $59.63.

Wheaton Precious Metals Price Performance

WPM opened at $52.65 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $45.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $45.97. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has a fifty-two week low of $38.37 and a fifty-two week high of $54.30. The company has a market cap of $23.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.23 and a beta of 0.77.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, March 14th. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.32 by $0.04. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 52.92% and a return on equity of 7.76%. The company had revenue of $313.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $284.29 million. As a group, analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. will post 1.24 EPS for the current year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, April 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.155 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 2nd. This represents a $0.62 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.18%. This is a boost from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.15. Wheaton Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.10%.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. primarily sells precious metals in North America, Europe, and South America. It produces and sells gold, silver, palladium, and cobalt deposits. The company was formerly known as Silver Wheaton Corp. and changed its name to Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. in May 2017. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp.