Wheaton Precious Metals Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NYSE:WPM)

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) saw some unusual options trading activity on Monday. Traders acquired 11,170 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 178% compared to the typical volume of 4,025 put options.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $864,977,000. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in shares of Wheaton Precious Metals during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $581,250,000. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board purchased a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the 2nd quarter valued at $351,708,000. Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the 2nd quarter valued at $328,309,000. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new stake in Wheaton Precious Metals during the 2nd quarter valued at $320,838,000. Institutional investors own 70.34% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have issued reports on WPM. Scotiabank reduced their price target on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $180.00 to $175.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Bank of America cut their price objective on Wheaton Precious Metals from $163.00 to $145.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on Wheaton Precious Metals from $165.00 to $160.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Berenberg Bank set a $157.00 target price on Wheaton Precious Metals in a research report on Tuesday, July 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Wheaton Precious Metals from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $165.55.

Wheaton Precious Metals Price Performance

Shares of WPM stock traded up $0.15 on Monday, reaching $157.93. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,169,434 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,278,345. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $119.19 and its 200-day simple moving average is $130.47. Wheaton Precious Metals has a 1 year low of $92.57 and a 1 year high of $165.76. The company has a market capitalization of $71.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.79 and a beta of 0.55. The company has a current ratio of 0.47, a quick ratio of 0.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The company reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $878.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $879.29 million. Wheaton Precious Metals had a net margin of 64.66% and a return on equity of 21.97%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s revenue was up 84.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.63 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that Wheaton Precious Metals will post 4.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wheaton Precious Metals Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 20th will be issued a $0.195 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 20th. This represents a $0.78 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Wheaton Precious Metals’s payout ratio is 17.29%.

About Wheaton Precious Metals

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. is a Canada-based precious metals streaming company that acquires and manages long-term purchase agreements for metals produced by mining companies. Rather than operating mines, Wheaton provides upfront and ongoing financing to miners in exchange for the right to purchase a portion of the metals produced — typically silver and gold, and occasionally other precious metals — at predetermined prices. This streaming business model offers investors exposure to metal production with reduced operating and capital-cost risk compared with traditional mining companies.

The company’s activities center on structuring and maintaining a diversified portfolio of streaming agreements across multiple jurisdictions.