Aviva PLC Makes New Investment in Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS)

Aviva PLC bought a new position in Pan American Silver Corp. (NYSE:PAAS) (TSE:PAAS) during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 203,459 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,108,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Trexquant Investment LP raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 64.7% during the fourth quarter. Trexquant Investment LP now owns 299,321 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $6,052,000 after acquiring an additional 117,616 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 494,133 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 6.4% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 252,494 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,101,000 after acquiring an additional 15,275 shares during the period. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 191.0% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 167,847 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,394,000 after acquiring an additional 110,170 shares during the period. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in shares of Pan American Silver by 12.7% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 834,933 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $16,649,000 after acquiring an additional 94,308 shares during the period. 55.43% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

PAAS has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Securities downgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $28.00 to $27.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 11th. National Bankshares reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of Pan American Silver in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Pan American Silver from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 11th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Pan American Silver from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 2nd. Finally, Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Pan American Silver from $28.00 to $28.50 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $27.92.

Pan American Silver Stock Performance

Shares of PAAS opened at $24.41 on Thursday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $24.73 and a 200-day moving average of $23.04. Pan American Silver Corp. has a one year low of $17.86 and a one year high of $27.47. The company has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a PE ratio of 76.27 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) (TSE:PAAS) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $0.35 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.35. Pan American Silver had a net margin of 3.98% and a return on equity of 6.14%. The company had revenue of $815.10 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $805.20 million. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Pan American Silver Corp. will post 1.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Pan American Silver Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 14th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.10 per share. This represents a $0.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. Pan American Silver’s payout ratio is 125.00%.

Pan American Silver Profile

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.