Sprott (NYSE:SII) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Sprott (NYSE:SII) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Saturday.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on SII. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their price target on shares of Sprott from $218.00 to $230.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Sprott from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, TD Securities restated a “hold” rating on shares of Sprott in a report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $230.00.

Sprott Price Performance

Shares of Sprott stock opened at $115.73 on Friday. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $129.36. Sprott has a 1 year low of $61.94 and a 1 year high of $169.63. The company has a market capitalization of $2.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.37 and a beta of 0.83.

Sprott (NYSE:SII) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.34 by ($0.01). The company had revenue of $71.78 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $82.45 million. Sprott had a net margin of 26.36% and a return on equity of 28.40%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.52 earnings per share.

Sprott Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Monday, August 17th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.4%. Sprott’s payout ratio is 39.22%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Royal Bank of Canada raised its position in shares of Sprott by 29.1% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 109,878 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,930,000 after buying an additional 24,763 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in Sprott by 7.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 59,917 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,688,000 after buying an additional 4,326 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. acquired a new stake in Sprott during the second quarter worth approximately $28,948,000. Sei Investments Co. bought a new position in Sprott during the 2nd quarter worth $203,000. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its stake in Sprott by 1.5% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 15,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,056,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.