Sandstorm Gold (NYSE:SAND) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Sandstorm Gold (NYSE:SAND) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Tuesday morning.

SAND has been the subject of several other reports. HC Wainwright raised their target price on shares of Sandstorm Gold from $11.50 to $11.75 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Raymond James set a $9.75 target price on shares of Sandstorm Gold and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 7th. Scotiabank raised their target price on shares of Sandstorm Gold from $7.25 to $8.25 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Sandstorm Gold from $6.50 to $7.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Sandstorm Gold presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $9.25.

Sandstorm Gold Price Performance

Shares of SAND opened at $8.15 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 163.03 and a beta of 0.48. Sandstorm Gold has a twelve month low of $4.92 and a twelve month high of $8.91. The company has a 50 day moving average of $7.72 and a 200-day moving average of $6.50. The company has a quick ratio of 2.29, a current ratio of 1.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.24.

Sandstorm Gold (NYSE:SAND) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 6th. The company reported $0.04 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.05 by ($0.01). The business had revenue of $50.10 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $71.61 million. Sandstorm Gold had a return on equity of 0.98% and a net margin of 8.11%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Sandstorm Gold will post 0.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sandstorm Gold Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 25th. Shareholders of record on Monday, April 14th were issued a dividend of $0.014 per share. This represents a $0.06 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 14th. Sandstorm Gold’s dividend payout ratio is 50.00%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Sandstorm Gold

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in SAND. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in Sandstorm Gold by 39,289.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 9,812,015 shares of the company’s stock valued at $54,751,000 after purchasing an additional 9,787,105 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP acquired a new stake in Sandstorm Gold during the 1st quarter valued at $15,617,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in Sandstorm Gold by 580.6% during the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 2,314,684 shares of the company’s stock valued at $12,916,000 after purchasing an additional 1,974,600 shares during the last quarter. Sprott Inc. lifted its holdings in Sandstorm Gold by 77.9% during the 4th quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 4,465,843 shares of the company’s stock valued at $24,925,000 after purchasing an additional 1,955,916 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of Sandstorm Gold by 35.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,522,246 shares of the company’s stock worth $36,394,000 after buying an additional 1,691,296 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 51.97% of the company’s stock.

About Sandstorm Gold

Sandstorm Gold Ltd. operates as a gold royalty company. The company focuses on acquiring royalties and gold and other metals purchase agreements from companies that have advanced stage operating mines. It offers upfront payments for companies to acquire a stream and receives the right to purchase a percentage of a mine's production for the life of the mine.