The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Grows Position in Sprott Inc. $SII

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in shares of Sprott Inc. (NYSE:SII) by 13.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 71,499 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,285 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned about 0.28% of Sprott worth $10,194,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Intact Investment Management Inc. boosted its holdings in Sprott by 62.1% during the fourth quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. now owns 78,800 shares of the company’s stock worth $7,718,000 after purchasing an additional 30,200 shares during the last quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Sprott in the 1st quarter worth about $17,068,000. Sage Investment Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in Sprott in the 4th quarter valued at about $830,000. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. lifted its position in shares of Sprott by 19.3% during the 4th quarter. Mawer Investment Management Ltd. now owns 1,515,002 shares of the company’s stock worth $148,349,000 after buying an additional 245,173 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Plus Group Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Sprott during the 4th quarter worth approximately $490,000. 28.30% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Sprott Trading Up 0.7%

NYSE:SII opened at $103.77 on Tuesday. Sprott Inc. has a 12 month low of $61.94 and a 12 month high of $169.63. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $115.03 and its 200 day moving average is $129.49. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.67 billion, a PE ratio of 31.73 and a beta of 0.83.

Sprott (NYSE:SII) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $1.13 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $80.75 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $78.06 million.

Sprott 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.