Silver Wheaton (SLW) Dividends Could Reach Half of Cash Flow: CEO

Silver Wheaton (NYSE:SLW) CEO Peter Barnes said in an interview with Reuters that he sees the possibility of the company paying out about half its cash flow each year in dividends.

Barnes said, "I don't see any reason why in the future we couldn't be paying out 40, 50 or 60 percent of our cash flow every year in dividends."

"If we can take this company to cash flows of $2 billion or $3 billion a year, it'll be tough to spend that amount of money on new deals all the time," added Barnes.

Estimates of cash flow for Silver Wheaton in 2011 are over $700 million. Barnes said even without no more additional deals, the company will grow at about 80 percent a year over the next five years.

"Until now, we've been a pure growth story and investors have really liked it," said Barnes. "I think now we're becoming growth and yield, and I think investors are going to like it even more."

Of course of this is predicated upon the price of silver maintaining and growing during that period of time, otherwise the cash flow projection will be far too high.

Most believe silver is far from reaching a top and has at least several years to go, although it's sure to be a bumpy ride as it always is with silver.

Silver Wheaton closed at $40.74, down $2.65, or 6.11 percent.




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