Sprott (NYSE:SII) Hits New 12-Month High – Here’s Why

Sprott Inc. (NYSE:SII) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as high as $163.72 and last traded at $162.3870, with a volume of 245134 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $156.93.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

SII has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen upgraded Sprott from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, February 21st. TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Sprott in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Sprott in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada upgraded Sprott from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Sprott has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $132.00.

Sprott Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $4.19 billion, a PE ratio of 62.43 and a beta of 1.02. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $120.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $94.34.

Sprott (NYSE:SII) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 19th. The company reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.53 by $0.58. Sprott had a return on equity of 19.47% and a net margin of 23.62%.The company had revenue of $61.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $69.12 million.

Sprott Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 2nd. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. Sprott’s payout ratio is currently 61.54%.

Institutional Trading of Sprott

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its holdings in Sprott by 74.0% during the 3rd quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,269,829 shares of the company’s stock worth $105,637,000 after acquiring an additional 539,940 shares in the last quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management purchased a new position in Sprott during the third quarter valued at approximately $968,000. Jupiter Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in Sprott during the third quarter worth $711,000. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in Sprott by 81.3% during the 3rd quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 48,600 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,040,000 after acquiring an additional 21,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Quantbot Technologies LP bought a new position in shares of Sprott in the 2nd quarter worth $782,000. Institutional investors own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Sprott Company Profile

Sprott Inc is a Toronto‐based alternative asset manager specializing in precious metals, real assets and related investment vehicles. Founded in 1981 by Eric Sprott, the firm has built a reputation for offering physically backed bullion trusts, exchange‐traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds and private managed accounts that provide exposure to gold, silver, platinum and other hard assets. Sprott’s product lineup also includes royalty and streaming strategies, which grant investors long‐term participation in mining project cash flows without direct operational risk.

In addition to its flagship physical bullion trusts, Sprott offers actively managed equity portfolios that focus on companies engaged in the exploration, development and production of precious metals.