Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) Hits New 12-Month High After Analyst Upgrade

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS - Get Free Report) TSE: PAAS's share price reached a new 52-week high on Tuesday after Scotiabank raised their price target on the stock from $28.50 to $32.00. Scotiabank currently has a sector outperform rating on the stock. Pan American Silver traded as high as $27.66 and last traded at $27.40, with a volume of 500737 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $27.18.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on PAAS. StockNews.com cut shares of Pan American Silver from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 2nd. National Bankshares reissued an "outperform" rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. TD Securities lowered shares of Pan American Silver from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and cut their price target for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 11th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Pan American Silver from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Pan American Silver currently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $28.50.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in PAAS. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 14,008,185 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $283,385,000 after purchasing an additional 221,561 shares during the period. FIL Ltd raised its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 13,388,644 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $270,848,000 after acquiring an additional 584,017 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pan American Silver in the 4th quarter worth approximately $91,916,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in Pan American Silver by 18.3% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,146,182 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $63,658,000 after purchasing an additional 486,622 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Pan American Silver by 32.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,027,461 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $40,776,000 after purchasing an additional 494,133 shares in the last quarter. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Pan American Silver Price Performance

The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $25.05 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $23.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.00 and a beta of 1.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 0.96.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS - Get Free Report) TSE: PAAS last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.35. The firm had revenue of $815.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $805.20 million. Pan American Silver had a return on equity of 6.14% and a net margin of 3.98%. As a group, analysts expect that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 1.26 EPS for the current year.

Pan American Silver Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.10 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.47%. Pan American Silver's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 125.00%.

About Pan American Silver

Pan American Silver Corp. engages in the exploration, mine development, extraction, processing, refining, and reclamation of silver, gold, zinc, lead, and copper mines in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The company was formerly known as Pan American Minerals Corp. and changed its name to Pan American Silver Corp.