A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRK) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

And we’ve been testing the premiums, and we have lowered a few premiums that — with the intention of just gauging where the demand is. And I will say that over the last two weeks, we’ve seen very positive results from the lower — slightly lower prices, both with ounces sold as well as with new customer acquisitions, that those lower prices have driven a significant amount of new customers to our DTC platforms. So, all in all, it’s a little bit of a balance, but I — the information and data that we’re seeing is very positive. I mean, in a — in what is theoretically a slightly slower demand environment for us to pick up new customers the way that we have been at least in the two weeks of August as we’ve been testing a little bit, is very good news for us.

Lucas Pipes: Good to hear. I’ll add a second question. You mentioned that the pipeline of acquisition looks very strong. And I wondered, could you remind us where you’d like to spend your energies on the M&A side? Is it still domestic, internationally? Is it on vertical integration? Mint, for example, like you have could update us on your priorities? That would be very helpful.

Greg Roberts: I think we’ve focused before on international expansion. That can be in the DTC segment or it can also be in our trading business, our wholesale trading business. And we have — we have identified a few opportunities that we’re looking at in these areas. I think that as it relates to the DTC segment and our domestic businesses where we have found some opportunities over the last six months on some smaller deals, we’re regularly looking for those. I think it’s also important to note that towards the end of this year, as we’ve disclosed in our ownership interest in Silver Gold Bull out of Calgary, Canada, we do have an option window that opens in December that is contractual and allows us to increase our stake with them if we choose to.

So that would be — if we decide to do that, there’s no assurances we will or there’s no — I’m not defining the timing of that. I’m just noting that it’s part of the agreement that we have with them. That could potentially affect our international business a bit more. So — but I think we have a nice group of things we’re looking at right now. And I think that what I really wanted to point out was even when we are balancing these things, we still felt very comfortable that the special dividend was good for the shareholders. And as we’ve said before, we want to reward the shareholders when we have a good year.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] The next question comes from Greg Gibas with Northland Securities. Please proceed, Greg.

Greg Gibas: Good afternoon, Greg, Kathleen. Congrats on the results. Great to see. I wanted to follow up on your comments regarding continued investment in your minting operations. Just wondering, if you can elaborate on that, given you — you did expand your minting capabilities considerably in fiscal ’23. Where do you intend on maybe expanding them further?

Greg Roberts: Well, a lot of it is equipment and — and equipment that we can use to make products that we haven’t made in the past. So I believe we have expanded at SilverTowne. We were very fortunate in this quarter to get online another new machine that is really, really right now turning out 100-ounce silver bars. It’s, again, it’s what we call a pizza oven. And it is perfect for us at this time. We were able to pick up a machine that had been ordered and being built for somebody that had been in process for another competitor of A-Mark’s for about 18 months, and that competitor decided to pass on it, and we were able to pick it up. And it’s a testament to our SilverTowne Mint people. They were able to add on a new structure and put this new machine in the structure and get it up online producing 100-ounce silver bars in about 120 days with — from the time that we ordered it or paid for it.