Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday morning.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $310.00 price target on shares of Franco-Nevada in a report on Friday, January 30th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce reissued an “outperform” rating on shares of Franco-Nevada in a research note on Wednesday, February 4th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Franco-Nevada from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Friday, March 20th. Canaccord Genuity Group downgraded Franco-Nevada from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank upped their price objective on Franco-Nevada from $283.00 to $286.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and seven have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $257.25.

Franco-Nevada Price Performance

Shares of Franco-Nevada stock opened at $262.71 on Friday. Franco-Nevada has a 1 year low of $152.89 and a 1 year high of $285.67. The company has a market capitalization of $50.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.47. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $254.70 and a 200 day moving average price of $227.70.

Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, March 10th. The basic materials company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.67 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $597.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $542.02 million. Franco-Nevada had a return on equity of 15.62% and a net margin of 61.01%.Franco-Nevada’s revenue was up 86.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.95 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Franco-Nevada will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Franco-Nevada

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in Franco-Nevada by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,330,234 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,726,741,000 after purchasing an additional 113,916 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in Franco-Nevada by 12.8% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 7,441,133 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,542,402,000 after purchasing an additional 842,132 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can boosted its position in Franco-Nevada by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 5,560,980 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,237,510,000 after purchasing an additional 454,175 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC boosted its position in Franco-Nevada by 26.5% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 5,123,444 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,062,037,000 after purchasing an additional 1,074,257 shares during the period. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted its position in Franco-Nevada by 10.2% during the 4th quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 2,808,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $582,177,000 after purchasing an additional 260,793 shares during the period. 77.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Franco-Nevada Company Profile

Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Toronto-based royalty and streaming company that specializes in securing and managing long-term interests in mining properties. The firm focuses primarily on precious metals, particularly gold, while also holding interests related to silver, copper, platinum-group metals and select base metals. Rather than operating mines directly, Franco-Nevada acquires royalty and streaming agreements that entitle it to a percentage of production or revenue from producing and developing assets in exchange for upfront or staged financing.

The company’s business model centers on providing capital to mining companies in return for a sustained share of production or metal revenue, which can reduce exposure to operating and capital cost risks typical of mine operators.