Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) Increases Dividend to $0.17 Per Share

Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, March 13th, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 1st will be given a dividend of 0.165 per share on Friday, April 11th. This represents a $0.66 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.86%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 1st. This is a 6.5% increase from Wheaton Precious Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16.

Wheaton Precious Metals has increased its dividend payment by an average of 2.8% annually over the last three years. Wheaton Precious Metals has a payout ratio of 33.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Wheaton Precious Metals to earn $1.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.66 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 36.1%.

Wheaton Precious Metals Stock Up 0.3 %

NYSE WPM opened at $76.86 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $34.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.36, a PEG ratio of 1.91 and a beta of 0.77. Wheaton Precious Metals has a twelve month low of $47.02 and a twelve month high of $77.86. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $68.44 and a 200 day simple moving average of $63.78.

Wheaton Precious Metals (NYSE:WPM) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 13th. The company reported $0.44 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by ($0.01). Wheaton Precious Metals had a return on equity of 8.85% and a net margin of 50.05%. The company had revenue of $380.52 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $395.74 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.36 earnings per share. Wheaton Precious Metals’s revenue was up 21.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Wheaton Precious Metals will post 1.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on WPM. Stifel Canada raised shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. Scotiabank upped their price target on shares of Wheaton Precious Metals from $78.00 to $79.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, March 17th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Wheaton Precious Metals presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $72.44.

Wheaton Precious Metals Company Profile

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.