Short Interest in Sprott Focus Trust, Inc. (NASDAQ:FUND) Grows By 68.2%

Sprott Focus Trust, Inc. (NASDAQ:FUND) was the target of a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 36,000 shares, a growth of 68.2% from the February 28th total of 21,400 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 46,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 0.8 days. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Sprott Focus Trust Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of FUND traded down $0.10 on Friday, hitting $7.36. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 49,068 shares, compared to its average volume of 36,797. Sprott Focus Trust has a fifty-two week low of $7.15 and a fifty-two week high of $8.23. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $7.52 and a 200 day moving average price of $7.65.

Sprott Focus Trust Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.1305 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.09%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 14th.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Portfolio Manager W Whitney George purchased 106,939 shares of Sprott Focus Trust stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $7.27 per share, for a total transaction of $777,446.53. Following the completion of the transaction, the portfolio manager now directly owns 7,813,063 shares in the company, valued at approximately $56,800,968.01. This represents a 1.39 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 50.59% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sprott Focus Trust

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in FUND. Hara Capital LLC acquired a new position in Sprott Focus Trust during the 4th quarter worth about $509,000. Waverly Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Sprott Focus Trust during the fourth quarter worth approximately $79,000. AQR Arbitrage LLC grew its stake in shares of Sprott Focus Trust by 34.5% during the fourth quarter. AQR Arbitrage LLC now owns 162,776 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $1,182,000 after purchasing an additional 41,797 shares during the last quarter. 1607 Capital Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of Sprott Focus Trust by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. 1607 Capital Partners LLC now owns 310,073 shares of the financial services provider’s stock valued at $2,268,000 after purchasing an additional 52,590 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of Sprott Focus Trust during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $82,000. 12.63% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Sprott Focus Trust Company Profile

Sprott Focus Trust, Inc is a closed-ended equity mutual fund launched and managed by Sprott Asset Management, LP. The fund is co-managed by Sprott Asset Management USA Inc It invests in the public equity markets of the United States. The fund seeks to invest in stocks of companies operating across diversified sectors.