Royal Bank of Canada Buys 45,120 Shares of Sprott Inc. $SII

Royal Bank of Canada increased its stake in Sprott Inc. (NYSE:SII) by 29.4% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 198,432 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 45,120 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in Sprott were worth $28,355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new stake in Sprott during the first quarter worth about $1,521,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in shares of Sprott by 13.1% during the 1st quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 71,499 shares of the company’s stock valued at $10,194,000 after purchasing an additional 8,285 shares during the last quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of Sprott during the 1st quarter valued at about $350,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in Sprott by 1.1% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 23,764 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,392,000 after buying an additional 258 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bradley Foster & Sargent Inc. CT bought a new stake in Sprott in the 1st quarter worth approximately $244,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have commented on SII shares. TD Securities reiterated a “hold” rating on shares of Sprott in a research report on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Sprott from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, May 9th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Sprott from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada increased their target price on shares of Sprott from $218.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 7th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.00.

Sprott Trading Up 0.6%

SII opened at $104.69 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $2.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.02 and a beta of 0.83. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $114.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $129.44. Sprott Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.94 and a 12 month high of $169.63.

Sprott (NYSE:SII) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $80.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.06 million. Sprott had a return on equity of 23.54% and a net margin of 21.99%.

Sprott Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Shareholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be paid a $0.40 dividend. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Sprott’s payout ratio is 48.93%.

About Sprott

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.