Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the eleven brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have given a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $44.3333.

A number of research firms recently weighed in on PAAS. Scotiabank raised their price target on Pan American Silver from $36.00 to $47.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 23rd. CIBC raised their target price on Pan American Silver from $50.00 to $62.00 and gave the company an “outperformer” rating in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $50.00 price target on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Sunday, December 7th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Pan American Silver from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, December 31st.

Pan American Silver Trading Up 2.2%

PAAS stock opened at $54.25 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market cap of $22.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.36, a P/E/G ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 0.67. Pan American Silver has a 1-year low of $20.35 and a 1-year high of $55.85. The business’s 50 day moving average is $45.45 and its 200-day moving average is $37.64.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last posted its 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 firm had revenue of $854.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $867.76 million. Pan American Silver had a return on equity of 11.66% and a net margin of 19.52%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 19.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.32 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that Pan American Silver will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 5th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 24th were given a dividend of $0.14 per share. This is an increase from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.12. This represents a $0.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, November 24th. Pan American Silver’s payout ratio is currently 32.37%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pan American Silver

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PAAS. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Pan American Silver by 48.6% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 19,529 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 6,391 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 574.9% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 19,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $504,000 after purchasing an additional 16,626 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in Pan American Silver by 31.6% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,499,343 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $38,728,000 after purchasing an additional 360,283 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Pan American Silver in the 1st quarter valued at $1,272,000. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in Pan American Silver by 189.0% in the 1st quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 107,952 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,788,000 after buying an additional 70,593 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 55.43% of the company’s stock.

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.