A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRK) Sees Large Increase in Short Interest

A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRK) saw a significant growth in short interest in the month of April. As of April 15th, there was short interest totalling 4,140,000 shares, a growth of 37.1% from the March 31st total of 3,020,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 369,200 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 11.2 days.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Michael R. Wittmeyer sold 22,558 shares of A-Mark Precious Metals stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.29, for a total transaction of $593,049.82. Following the sale, the director now owns 408,225 shares in the company, valued at $10,732,235.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, Director Michael R. Wittmeyer sold 22,558 shares of A-Mark Precious Metals stock in a transaction on Thursday, February 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.29, for a total value of $593,049.82. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 408,225 shares in the company, valued at $10,732,235.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Michael R. Wittmeyer sold 22,383 shares of A-Mark Precious Metals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.06, for a total transaction of $583,300.98. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 453,283 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,812,554.98. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 53,637 shares of company stock worth $1,396,360 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 23.20% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On A-Mark Precious Metals

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in A-Mark Precious Metals by 9.8% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,684,735 shares of the company’s stock worth $49,413,000 after purchasing an additional 150,343 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in A-Mark Precious Metals by 48.9% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 384,799 shares of the company’s stock worth $11,286,000 after purchasing an additional 126,385 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management lifted its holdings in A-Mark Precious Metals by 136.6% in the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 192,105 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,634,000 after purchasing an additional 110,905 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in A-Mark Precious Metals by 10.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,129,775 shares of the company’s stock worth $34,178,000 after purchasing an additional 106,842 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its holdings in A-Mark Precious Metals by 1,515.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 98,219 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,881,000 after purchasing an additional 92,139 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 75.25% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AMRK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. B. Riley dropped their price target on shares of A-Mark Precious Metals from $41.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, February 21st. DA Davidson lifted their price target on shares of A-Mark Precious Metals from $42.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 10th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of A-Mark Precious Metals from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Friday.

A-Mark Precious Metals Stock Performance

A-Mark Precious Metals stock opened at $40.12 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $916.94 million, a PE ratio of 8.90 and a beta of 0.02. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $31.17 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $29.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a current ratio of 1.86 and a quick ratio of 0.32. A-Mark Precious Metals has a 12 month low of $23.14 and a 12 month high of $42.48.

A-Mark Precious Metals (NASDAQ:AMRK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 6th. The company reported $0.90 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.23 by ($0.33). A-Mark Precious Metals had a return on equity of 26.90% and a net margin of 1.10%. The business had revenue of $2.08 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.25 billion. Research analysts expect that A-Mark Precious Metals will post 4.33 earnings per share for the current year.

A-Mark Precious Metals Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, April 29th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, April 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.20 per share. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, April 15th. A-Mark Precious Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.74%.

About A-Mark Precious Metals

A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a precious metals trading company. It operates through three segments: Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services, Direct-to-Consumer, and Secured Lending. The Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment sells gold, silver, platinum, and palladium in the form of bars, plates, powders, wafers, grains, ingots, and coins.