Pan American Silver Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:PAAS)

Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS - Get Free Report) TSE: PAAS saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 17,908 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 213% compared to the average daily volume of 5,714 call options.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Pan American Silver

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of PAAS. Signaturefd LLC grew its position in Pan American Silver by 6.0% during the fourth quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 7,924 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $160,000 after acquiring an additional 451 shares during the last quarter. US Bancorp DE increased its position in shares of Pan American Silver by 9.6% in the fourth quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 6,139 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $124,000 after acquiring an additional 539 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in Pan American Silver by 23.4% during the 4th quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,892 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $58,000 after purchasing an additional 549 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Pan American Silver by 12.5% during the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 5,977 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $121,000 after buying an additional 664 shares during the period. Finally, Evergreen Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 2.4% during the fourth quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 30,203 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $611,000 after acquiring an additional 715 shares in the last quarter. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on PAAS. TD Securities lowered Pan American Silver from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 11th. National Bankshares reiterated an "outperform" rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. StockNews.com lowered shares of Pan American Silver from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Scotiabank reiterated a "sector perform" rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Monday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Pan American Silver from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Tuesday, February 11th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $28.50.

Pan American Silver Price Performance

NYSE PAAS traded down $0.82 on Friday, hitting $27.20. The stock had a trading volume of 3,654,412 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,698,337. The company has a market capitalization of $9.85 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 85.00 and a beta of 1.06. Pan American Silver has a 52-week low of $17.86 and a 52-week high of $28.60. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $25.05 and a 200-day moving average of $23.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a current ratio of 2.50.

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

Pan American Silver Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. 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.