Sprott (NYSE:SII) Downgraded to Hold Rating by Wall Street Zen

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

SII has been the topic of a number of other reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Sprott from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted 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. Finally, TD Securities reissued a “hold” rating on shares of Sprott in a research report on Thursday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $230.00.

Sprott Trading Up 4.9%

Shares of NYSE:SII opened at $117.83 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $3.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.88 and a beta of 0.83. Sprott has a 12-month low of $61.94 and a 12-month high of $169.63. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $113.72 and a 200 day moving average price of $129.33.

Sprott (NYSE:SII) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The company reported $1.33 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $0.52 EPS.

Sprott Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 1st. Stockholders of record on Monday, August 17th will be given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, August 17th. Sprott’s dividend payout ratio is currently 39.22%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Sprott Inc. lifted its holdings in Sprott by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 1,661,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,659,000 after buying an additional 15,555 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Sprott by 19.3% in the fourth quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,515,002 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,349,000 after acquiring an additional 245,173 shares in the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors grew its stake in shares of Sprott by 88.1% in the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 991,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,101,000 after acquiring an additional 464,177 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its position in shares of Sprott by 45.9% during the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 713,468 shares of the company’s stock worth $69,872,000 after acquiring an additional 224,490 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Sprott by 82.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 573,923 shares of the company’s stock worth $56,215,000 after acquiring an additional 259,112 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

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.