Which Silver Stock Is Analysts’ Favorite These Days?

Precious metal miners with substantial exposure to silver have also performed well year-to-date. Of these companies, Coeur Mining (CDE) has outperformed its peers. Coeur rose 171% as of April 8 while First Majestic Silver (AG) followed closely with a 126% gain.

Pan American Silver (PAAS), Hecla Mining (HL), and Tahoe Resources (TAHO) rose 87%, 68%, and 38%, respectively. Silver (SLV) and gold (GLD) prices have risen by 17% and 15%, respectively.

Coeur and First Majestic are highly leveraged operationally compared to their closest peers. They’re also relatively high-cost operators, leading to unproportionate gains. To follow up on Coeur, please read What’s in Store for Coeur Mining in 1Q16 and Beyond?

The market has a consensus “hold” rating for Coeur Mining. Out of 12 analysts covering the company, 25% have “buy” recommendations, 25% have “sell” recommendations, and 50% have “hold” recommendations on the stock.

The average target price for CDE is $5.80 compared to its current market price of $6.50, which implies a potential downside of 10.5%.

Pan American Silver and Hecla have received just 8% and 10% “buy” recommendations, respectively. Tahoe Resources is an analyst favorite with 87% “buy” ratings and no “sell” ratings.

Pan American Silver has seen the largest analyst downgrades year-to-date. At the start of 2016, it had 25% “buy” and 42% “hold” ratings. Now, it has 8% “buy” and 83% “hold” ratings.

On the other hand, analysts have upgraded their ratings for First Majestic Silver. It had 13% “buy” ratings at the start of the year compared to 33% now. It’s also seen the largest upward revision in its target price, at 28% year-to-date.

The target price for Tahoe shows an upside, but all other stock prices should fall based on analysts’ average target prices. The largest downside is for PAAS, at 17%, followed by Hecla, at 15%.