UBS Group AG Sells 28,058 Shares of Sprott Inc. $SII

UBS Group AG lowered its holdings in Sprott Inc. (NYSE:SII) by 54.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,428 shares of the company’s stock after selling 28,058 shares during the quarter. UBS Group AG owned 0.09% of Sprott worth $2,294,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sprott Inc. increased its stake in Sprott by 3.7% in the third quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 1,645,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $136,896,000 after acquiring an additional 59,101 shares during the period. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Sprott by 74.0% in the third quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,269,829 shares of the company’s stock valued at $105,637,000 after acquiring an additional 539,940 shares during the period. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. increased its stake in Sprott by 99.6% in the third quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. now owns 739,700 shares of the company’s stock valued at $61,466,000 after acquiring an additional 369,100 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Sprott by 82.3% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 573,923 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,215,000 after acquiring an additional 259,112 shares during the period. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Sprott by 98.0% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 488,978 shares of the company’s stock valued at $40,660,000 after acquiring an additional 242,021 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Sprott Trading Down 0.1%

Shares of Sprott stock opened at $127.94 on Thursday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 39.12 and a beta of 0.78. Sprott Inc. has a 1-year low of $57.26 and a 1-year high of $169.63. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $137.22 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.83.

Sprott (NYSE:SII) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $1.13 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $80.75 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $78.06 million. Sprott had a net margin of 21.99% and a return on equity of 23.54%.

Sprott Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, May 19th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, May 19th. Sprott’s dividend payout ratio is currently 48.93%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

SII has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada upped their target price 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. TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Sprott in a research note on Thursday, May 7th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Sprott from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 9th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b)” rating on shares of Sprott in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has given a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $230.00.

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.