Silver Wheaton shares struggle as Q1 earnings-miss hurts

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – The TSX- and NYSE-listed stock of the world’s biggest precious metals streaming firm Silver Wheaton was under pressure Monday after the company reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the first quarter ended March 31.

Net income for the period totalled $41-million, or $0.10 a share, down from $49-million, or $0.13 a share, a year earlier, and falling short of the $0.12 a share consensus.

Vancouver-based Silver Wheaton’s stock slid nearly 7.6% on Monday to $18.21 on the NYSE, as spot prices for its main commodities silver and gold both slid more than 2%.

During the first quarter of 2016, attributable silver equivalent output was 12.7-million ounces, comprising 7.6-million ounces of silver and 64 900 oz of gold, representing an increase of 24% over the first quarter of 2015.

“Silver Wheaton had a solid start to 2016 and the company is on track to realising its production guidance of 54-million silver equivalence ounces for the year," stated president and CEO Randy Smallwood on Monday.

The attributable silver-equivalent sales volume in the first quarter was up 65% year-on-year at 12.8-million ounces. The company advised that it had realised the second-best quarter ever in terms of production and sales volumes, as Vale’s Salobo mine, in Brazil, once more reported record output.

Silver Wheaton had also for the first time sold more than 65 000 oz of gold in a quarter.

Revenues of $188-million in the period were 44% higher year-on-year when compared with $131-million in the same period of 2015.

The company had declared its second quarterly cash dividend of $0.05 a share to be paid to holders of record of Silver Wheaton common shares on May 19, and will be distributed on or around June 2.

Early in January, Silver Wheaton had started an appeal in the Tax Court of Canada regarding a tax dispute with the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA). The company advised that in order to commence the appeal, it was required to make a deposit of 50% of the reassessed amounts of tax, interest and penalties. Upon approval from the CRA, Silver Wheaton posted security on March 15, in the form of a letter of guarantee for the amount of C$192-million, rather than making a cash deposit.

During the quarter, the company had raised total net proceeds of about $607-million through a bought-deal common share financing, which was used to repay debt that was outstanding under the company's $2-billion revolving credit facility.