E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Takes Position in Pan American Silver Corp. $PAAS

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor purchased 12,686 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $568,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in Pan American Silver in the second quarter valued at about $375,948,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Pan American Silver in the 4th quarter worth approximately $303,611,000. FIL Ltd grew its position in shares of Pan American Silver by 154.7% in the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 7,307,777 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $378,872,000 after acquiring an additional 4,438,478 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors bought a new stake in shares of Pan American Silver in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $215,484,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 148.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 3,368,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $95,658,000 after acquiring an additional 2,011,862 shares during the last quarter. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Pan American Silver Trading Up 3.3%

Shares of NYSE PAAS opened at $51.95 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.67 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.67 and a beta of 0.73. Pan American Silver Corp. has a 12-month low of $31.16 and a 12-month high of $69.99. The company has a current ratio of 2.94, a quick ratio of 2.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $46.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $52.75.

Pan American Silver (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 12th. The basic materials company reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.84 by ($0.11). The company had revenue of $1.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.16 billion. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 32.04% and a return on equity of 20.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 38.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.43 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

Pan American Silver Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 24th will be issued a dividend of $0.184 per share. This represents a $0.74 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. This is a positive change from Pan American Silver’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 24th. Pan American Silver’s dividend payout ratio is presently 21.75%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

PAAS has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Scotiabank restated an “outperform” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research note on Tuesday, July 14th. TD Cowen upgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $67.00 to $72.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 12th. BMO Capital Markets restated a “market perform” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Thursday, August 13th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, August 15th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $70.43.

Pan American Silver Company Profile

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.