Renaissance Technologies LLC Grows Position in Sprott Inc. $SII

Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its position in Sprott Inc. (NYSE:SII) by 23.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 101,600 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 19,500 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC’s holdings in Sprott were worth $14,519,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Sprott Inc. raised its holdings in Sprott by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 1,661,137 shares of the company’s stock worth $162,659,000 after purchasing an additional 15,555 shares in the last quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. raised its stake in Sprott by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,515,002 shares of the company’s stock valued at $148,349,000 after acquiring an additional 245,173 shares during the last quarter. Capital Research Global Investors lifted its holdings in shares of Sprott by 88.1% during the fourth quarter. Capital Research Global Investors now owns 991,339 shares of the company’s stock worth $97,101,000 after purchasing an additional 464,177 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Sprott by 45.9% in the 4th 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. lifted its position 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 purchasing an additional 259,112 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 28.30% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Sprott Stock Down 3.5%

SII opened at $102.92 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $115.46 and a two-hundred day moving average of $129.37. Sprott Inc. has a 52-week low of $61.94 and a 52-week high of $169.63. The company has a market cap of $2.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47 and a beta of 0.81.

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

Sprott Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 3rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 19th were issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, May 19th. Sprott’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.93%.

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.