Tag Archives: Silver Wheaton

China's Latest Threat to Gold and Silver

By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool

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The swirling global economy has recently put significant pressure on gold and silver prices despite the continuing uncertainty that exists in Europe and elsewhere. Earlier this week, China announced figures for both its consumer price index and producer price index that suggest inflation expectations missed the mark fairly considerably. This has the effect of putting significant pressure on gold and silver prices throughout the year.

In the video below, Fool.com contributor Doug Ehrman discusses the potential impact of the report, how precious metals may be affected by the Chinese government, and developments in the world’s second-largest economy.

If you are looking for a company whose success is determined by the metals market, but without involving itself in the risks of physically mining the metals, then Silver Wheaton provides a unique play on the future of silver. SLW chooses to finance the mining of silver; it has grown sales and net income every year since 2008, and also has increased competitive advantages over its limited peer group. To learn more about Silver Wheaton, click here now to access The Motley Fool’s premium research report on the company.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Readers Respond: The 10 Best Ways to Play the Hugest Bubble in History

By Ilan Moscovitz and John Reeves, The Motley Fool

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WHat??????????
What is the hell are you guys talking about ??????????

That was just one of the nearly 1,700 emails we received in response to our “Hugest Bubble in History Set to Explode” special alert.

By now, most of you probably know that we weren’t really tipped off to a soon-to-explode bubble of historic proportions. There was no anonymous Swiss bubble expert feeding us information — it was all part of this year’s April Fool’s Day joke, which took to task Wall Street, hurried speculators, and breathless pundits.

In addition to offering our own Market Goggles™ to help you “see” through the market noise and a ShadowFear Index™ that identified “hidden” levels of market fear, we asked readers to submit their own favorite bubble plays.

The most popular were big-name blue chips: Johnson & Johnson, Hormel, Berkshire Hathaway, and Costco. A lot of readers also thought tech stocks like Apple and 3D Systems would be good picks for a bubble.

Commodity buffs liked natural gas exporter Cheniere Energy and Silver Wheaton. The VIX market volatility index was also a popular pick, even though we claimed in update 7 that the VIX IS CONTROLLED BY WALL STREET.

Here were some fairly typical responses:

I want two (2) pairs [of Market Goggles™].
I want green and blue
One stock I am interested in to play the bubble is Johnson & Johnson (JNJ).

Is this a joke? JNJ

Please send me the “MegaBubble: What’s Hot and What’s Not” special free report.

Wondering if you still have the market Google for free. 

Some readers got really creative and suggested alternative investments for playing the bubble. Here are 10 of our favorite responses:

1. As an asset class, ant farms have held their value in previous market downturns. The only downside that I can foresee is that it is a niche market within the collectibles class that is very thinly traded, and is only traded on the Puerto Maldonaldo exchange.

2. With the end of Hostess, Twinkies are already becoming a rare commodity…. The already low supply and intense demand that will come after the collapse will create a perfect storm for Twinkie prices.

3. Invest heavily in toilet paper…….and shovels……

4. None of the metals you mentioned above. More likely silver. Secondarily maybe Boron.

5. I would like to request one pair of 3-D glasses, Rose colored lenses; my stock to play the bubble is Facebook.

6. Cannot reveal source as it is a close and trusted friend, seems [large European bank] is looking more and more “troubling.”

[At that point, our reader received our automatic email response: “Dear Fool, Thanks for your note! The Motley Fool’s mission is “to educate, amuse, and enrich,” and every April 1, we like to focus on amusement in particular….” The reader then replied]

Oh, then “nevermind” the bit on [large European bank]
Onwards

7. Hardened Structures, LLC and Utah Shelter Systems. Should the dreaded triple top scenario play out, global markets will be worthless so we should invest …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Is Silver Wheaton a Buy Ahead of Earnings?

By Doug Ehrman, The Motley Fool

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Silver Wheaton is set to release earnings on March 21 after the close, followed by a conference call the following morning with company officials. Despite having released new numbers on Tuesday that show the company now has reserves well in excess of 1 billion ounces of silver, the stock started Wednesday’s session lower as investors braced for operating results, and what is likely of greater importance, guidance. Silver Wheaton has long been one of the darlings of the mining industry, largely as a result of its business model, but the stock has suffered as silver has stagnated lately. While the specifics have changed, I still see Silver Wheaton as a great play in silver at current levels and an important part of a well-diversified portfolio.

Growing reserves
In Tuesday’s press release, Silver Wheaton announced that attributable proven and probable reserves on a silver equivalent basis had risen to 1,116.1 million ounces; that number reflects 851.4 million ounces of silver and 4.96 million ounces of gold. This is a record level for the company and represents a 38% increase over the previous year. During the same period, attributable measured and indicated reserves rose to 603.2 million silver equivalent ounces, a 28% increase over the previous year. These figures leave Silver Wheaton solidly in the lead for largest silver reserves in the world.

Highlights from the previous year, also mentioned in the press release, include the addition of new streams from HudBay Minerals and Vale . The HudBay acquisition consisted of a silver stream from the Constancia project and a precious metals stream from the 777 mine. The Vale acquisition was for 70% of the gold from various Sudbury operations for the next 20 years and 25% of the gold from Vale’s Salobo mine for the life of that mine. 

The latter is of particular note because it represents the first major gold acquisition by Silver Wheaton. When Motley Fool contributor Christopher Barker had an opportunity to speak with CEO Randy Smallwood earlier this quarter, he assured Barker that the company continues to favor silver. He did acknowledge, however, that a necessary part of the company’s prospects for growth must come from diversified precious metal plays. Look for commentary along these lines in both the company’s guidance and during the conference call as it has the potential to impact Silver Wheaton‘s cash flows.

What to expect
The consensus analyst estimates for the quarter are for earnings per share of $0.49 on $259.4 million in revenue. These figures represent EPS growth of 19.5% on revenue growth of 35%. With the company thus far maintaining an operating margin just below 74%, these figures are solid and largely attributable to the company’s optimized operating model. As we learned from First Majestic when it recently released earnings, despite having a record quarter for production, the company faced mounting cost pressures from both regular operations and environmental concerns. 

Silver …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Silver Wheaton Reserves Hit Record in 2012

By Eric Volkman, The Motley Fool

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Several days ahead of the company’s annual earnings release, Silver Wheaton has released a set of operational statistics for 2012 that include news of record reserves. The mining company’s attributable proven and provable reserves grew by more than 38% on a year-over-year basis to an unprecedented 1.1 billion silver equivalent ounces. This total comprised 851 million ounces of silver and nearly 5 million ounces of gold.

Meanwhile, attributable measured and indicated resources saw an increase of 28% over the same time frame. They also notched a new company record, at more than 603 million silver equivalent ounces. Of that amount, 529 million ounces of were silver, while 1.4 million ounces were gold.

The strong growth is at least partially attributable to acquisitions in 2012. Silver Wheaton purchased a set of mining assets from Hudbay Materials and acquired stakes in several precious metals projects operated by Vale.

Silver Wheaton is to release its Q4 and fiscal 2012 results after market close on Thursday.

The article Silver Wheaton Reserves Hit Record in 2012 originally appeared on Fool.com.

Fool contributor Eric Volkman and The Motley Fool have no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don’t all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Copyright © 1995 – 2013 The Motley Fool, LLC. All rights reserved. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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Read | <a target=_blank href="http://www.dailyfinance.com/2013/03/19/silver-wheaton-reserves-grew-38-in/" rel="bookmark" …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Silver Wheaton Earnings: An Early Look

By Dan Caplinger, The Motley Fool

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Earnings season is winding down, with most companies already having reported their quarterly results. But there are still some companies left to report, and Silver Wheaton is about to release its quarterly earnings report. The key to making smart investment decisions with stocks releasing their quarter reports is to anticipate how they’ll do before they announce results, leaving you fully prepared to respond quickly to whatever inevitable surprises arise. That way, you’ll be less likely to make an uninformed knee-jerk reaction to news that turns out to be exactly the wrong move.

Silver Wheaton‘s distinctive business model has helped it benefit from the long-term rise in silver prices while also protecting it from many of the challenges that have plagued ordinary mining companies recently. Can the silver-streamer take advantage of current market conditions to build its profits even further? Let’s take an early look at what’s been happening with Silver Wheaton over the past quarter and what we’re likely to see in its quarterly report on Thursday.

Stats on Silver Wheaton

Analyst EPS Estimate

$0.49

Change From Year-Ago EPS

19.5%

Revenue Estimate

$259.4 million

Change From Year-Ago Revenue

35%

Earnings Beats in Past 4 Quarters

1

Source: Yahoo! Finance.

Will Silver Wheaton shine itself up this quarter?
Over the past few months, analysts have soured a bit on Silver Wheaton‘s long-term prospects. Although consensus estimates have stayed stable for the just-ended quarter, full-year 2013 views have dropped by $0.18 per share. The stock has reflected that uncertainty, falling 18% since mid-December.

Fool readers were recently fortunate enough to benefit from Fool metals expert Christopher Barker‘s interview with Silver Wheaton CEO Randy Smallwood. In that interview, Smallwood said that he sees a big opportunity to expand Silver Wheaton‘s scope among the biggest companies in the mining industry. However, he noted that smaller companies have been trying to add price-adjustment clauses to streaming agreements, potentially forcing Silver Wheaton to accept the cost risk that it has historically avoided.

The big news for Silver Wheaton came at the beginning of February, when it announced it would partner up with Brazilian mining giant Vale in a streaming deal involving payments totaling $1.9 billion upfront. What’s particularly remarkable about the deal is that it involves gold mines, with 25% of gold production from Vale’s Salobo mine in Brazil and 70% of gold produced from its Canadian Sudbury mines going to Silver Wheaton at a fixed cost of $400 per ounce. Even more unprecedented for the company is the fact that Silver Wheaton gave Vale warrants to buy 10 million Silver Wheaton shares at a price of $65 at any time during the next 10 years. Smallwood assured Barker in his interview that the company still prefers silver to gold, but it’s clear that Silver Wheaton‘s future relies on a mix of metals.

Silver prices haven’t cooperated with Silver Wheaton lately. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Silver Wheaton Earnings Up Next

By Seth Jayson, The Motley Fool

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Silver Wheaton (NYS: SLW) is expected to report Q4 earnings on March 21. Here’s what Wall Street wants to see:

The 10-second takeaway
Comparing the upcoming quarter to the prior-year quarter, average analyst estimates predict Silver Wheaton‘s revenues will grow 33.6% and EPS will grow 17.1%.

The average estimate for revenue is $256.3 million. On the bottom line, the average EPS estimate is $0.48.

Revenue details
Last quarter, Silver Wheaton reported revenue of $161.3 million. GAAP reported sales were 13% lower than the prior-year quarter’s $185.2 million.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Dollar amounts in millions. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

EPS details
Last quarter, EPS came in at $0.34. GAAP EPS of $0.34 for Q3 were 11% lower than the prior-year quarter’s $0.38 per share.

Source: S&P Capital IQ. Quarterly periods. Non-GAAP figures may vary to maintain comparability with estimates.

Recent performance
For the preceding quarter, gross margin was 86.7%, 190 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Operating margin was 73.6%, 430 basis points worse than the prior-year quarter. Net margin was 74.2%, 130 basis points better than the prior-year quarter.

Looking ahead

The full year’s average estimate for revenue is $818.6 million. The average EPS estimate is $1.66.

Investor sentiment
The stock has a four-star rating (out of five) at Motley Fool CAPS, with 2,623 members out of 2,733 rating the stock outperform, and 110 members rating it underperform. Among 497 CAPS All-Star picks (recommendations by the highest-ranked CAPS members), 473 give Silver Wheaton a green thumbs-up, and 24 give it a red thumbs-down.

Of Wall Street recommendations tracked by S&P Capital IQ, the average opinion on Silver Wheaton is outperform, with an average price target of $44.00.

Is Silver Wheaton the right metals stock for you? Find out the best way to profit from inflation and gold with a little-known company we profile in, “The Tiny Gold Stock Digging Up Massive Profits.” Click here for instant access to this free report.

The article Silver Wheaton Earnings Up Next originally appeared on Fool.com.


Seth Jayson had no position in any company mentioned here at the time of publication. You can view his stock holdings here. He is co-advisor of
Motley Fool Hidden Gems, which provides new small-cap ideas every month, backed by a real-money portfolio. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

Talking Value, Risks, and Opportunities with Silver Wheaton's CEO

By Christopher Barker, The Motley Fool

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Before interviewing a resource-company CEO, I enjoy inviting members of Motley Fool CAPS to propose their own questions. The poignant insights that commonly stem from reader-submitted questions offer a prime example of how powerful a force it can be to pool our ideas as investors and approach the discipline as a community the way we do here at The Motley Fool.

Before my recent conversation with Silver Wheaton CEO Randy Smallwood, I asked community members to submit their own questions, and the following exchange stems directly from two questions posed by CAPS member skypilot2005.

Christopher Barker: I had let my readers know that I would be speaking with you and invited them to propose any questions they might wish to ask. One Motley Fool CAPS blogger asked the following two-part question: What’s the single greatest threat to the precious-metals streaming industry, and what is the biggest opportunity?

Randy Smallwood: The biggest threat, I would say, is that some of these smaller companies are chipping away at the model and giving up price participation features in the process. For me, one of the highlights of the model — and something we’ve always maintained a big focus on — is that there will never be a cost surprise in our company. It’s the one risk that we take out of the equation, which the normal resource investor has to face. The capital cost estimates and operating cost estimates are all very, very fluid, and what we’ve seen lately is that there are some really poor track records in terms of delivering those. So I want cost-confidence. I want to be able to tell my shareholders that “guess what, you know that my cost per ounce will be ‘X’ in 2015, and that my cost per ounce will be ‘Y’ in 2020.” And that will stay.

A lot of other companies have taken to giving out price sharing or adjustments based on performance, and to me that opens up a variable on the cost side that is one of the main attractions of the streaming side … is that we’ve taken out that cost risk. And so that I think is something that’s weakening the model from that perspective. And they’ve had to do it to remain competitive; it’s a competitive space. We’ve obviously had great success in growing our company, and a lot of people see that success and want to get their foot in the door.

The greatest opportunity in the industry is the continued recognition that selling off a non-core asset to fund your core franchise is viable. What people have a hard time with on the streaming side is that instead of dividing an asset along property boundaries, we’re dividing it among metal boundaries within the property. That’s really what a stream agreement is. And as that gets more accepted among companies the size and scale of Vale — and you know we’ve got partnerships with …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance

5 Fast-Growing Profit Gushers

By Selena Maranjian, The Motley Fool

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When you seek out compelling candidates for your stock portfolio, there are lots of numbers you can assess — price-to-earnings ratios, debt-to-equity ratios, free cash flow, and so on. To gather a manageable list of possibilities, you might want to employ a screen that will narrow down the universe of stocks according to whichever criteria you set. I did just that recently, and arrived at a handful of interesting companies that are growing rapidly and reaping hefty profits.

At finviz.com, I screened for stocks with:

  • A market capitalization of at least $300 million. This includes many small companies but not tiny ones.
  • Revenue growth over the past five years of at least 10%. This is a good measure because it’s hard to grow your bottom line if your top line isn’t growing.
  • Earnings-per-share (EPS) growth over the next five years expected to be positive — because why aim for companies expected to experience shrinking EPS?
  • Net profit margins of more than 15%. Net margins reflect how much of each dollar of revenue is retained as earnings.

Why fat margins?
It’s a big plus for a portfolio candidate to have a hefty net margin — for several reasons. For starters, it tends to reflect some competitive advantage, such as brand power or a business model that’s not too capital intensive and scales efficiently, perhaps one with relatively fixed costs. Think of a software company, for example. Once it develops some software, for it to double its sales it doesn’t have to double all the work that went into developing the software. It just has to make it available via a disk or a download or some other inexpensive means of delivery. A big margin also gives a company some wiggle room, permitting it to lower costs when necessary, without a lot of pain.

Profit gushers
Here are a few companies that my screen produced. See if any of them interest you, and perhaps add them to your watch list or portfolio.

Baidu , the Chinese search engine giant, sports a five-year average annual revenue growth rate of 72% and a net profit margin of 46.6%. Its stock is down about 42% from its 52-week high, partly on concerns about China‘s slowing growth rate. Baidu has seen some decelerating  revenue growth recently, but its long-term prospects are good, as much of China and Asia have yet to get online, representing further growth potential. Better still, many of its numbers outshine those of Google, though it does have serious competition, too.

Silver Wheaton sports a five-year average annual revenue growth rate of 39% and a net profit margin of 73.3%. This precious metals specialist’s business model is rather beautiful, as instead of being involved in relatively risky and capital-intensive mining, it simply buys the rights to income from mines in exchange for financing. It has many investors excited recently, too, with a new deal it struck with Vale for rights to big chunks of …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at DailyFinance