Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (WPM) Gained from Solar Panel Silver Consumption

Horizon Kinetics, an investment management company, released its second-quarter 2022 investor letter. You can download it here. The letter discussed how inflation affects valuations and investors’ returns. The fund’s portfolios are concentrated and focused on the businesses that can benefit from the inflationary environment. You can check the fund’s top 5 holdings to know more about its best picks in 2022.

In the letter, Horizon Kinetics discussed its specifications for portfolio selection. The fund holds some royalty companies, like Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM), which sells precious metals internationally. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, and has a market capitalization of $15.052 billion.  The stock of Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) closed at $33.34 per share on July 28, 2022. On a monthly time frame, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) was down -10.06%, whereas its 12-month return dropped to -27.76%.

Here is what Horizon Kinetics specifically said about Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) in its Q2 2022 investor letter:

“Even within the specific sector of royalty companies, there is room for value-added diversification. It’s not just about gold. Wheaton Precious metals (NYSE:WPM), which has a $15 billion market value, provides the greatest exposure to silver, which accounts for almost half of its revenues. Unlike gold, a substantial portion of the demand for silver – about 50% – is for industrial use. That’s long been the case, but there has been an important change, which is the demand for silver as a conductor for solar panels. Whatever the variety of projections for solar panel demand might be, it’s fair to say that this is a rapidly expanding industry. The company continually invests in new royalty/streaming contracts.

Solar panel demand for silver has grown to such a degree that it accounted for almost 60% of the total increase in global silver consumption in the past decade. It has become a significant factor in silver demand and might be the factor that tips the supply/demand balance into disequilibrium.”

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Although Horizon Kinetics invested in Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM), the stock isn’t on our list of 30 Most Popular Stocks Among Hedge Funds. At the end of the first quarter, Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) was in 28 hedge fund portfolios as per our database, which was up from 24  in the previous quarter. Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM) shares lost 26.06% of their value over the last 52 weeks.

Last December, we published an article on Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. (NYSE:WPM). If you want to read more investor letters from hedge funds and other leading investors, check out our hedge fund investor letters Q2 2022 page.

Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at Insider Monkey.