Alexander Merk, COO of ASA Gold & Precious Metals (ASA), recently bought 28,860 shares. The buy increased his stake by 13%, and came to a total cost of $634,720.
The buy comes following several other buys in the final weeks of 2024, where the COO paid over $2.1 million for over 100,000 shares. A company director also bought 400 shares in the past few days. There have been zero insider sales at ASA over the past two years.
Overall, ASA insiders own 1.1% of shares.
The gold and hard asset investment manager is up 47% over the past year, outperforming both gold and traditional gold mining stocks.
Operationally, ASA performed more in-line with the lackluster performance of gold stocks over the past year. Total revenues fell by over 40%, but ASA still looks inexpensive at about 7 times forward earnings.
Action to take: ASA shares have been trending higher for the past year, and the trend shows no sign of changing anytime soon. Shares can likely trend higher into 2025, especially if gold continues to trend higher, which should bode well for precious metals investments.
At current prices, ASA also pays a 0.2% dividend.
For traders, the August 2025 $22.50 calls, last carrying a bid/ask spread of about $2.25, are just $1.00 out-of-the-money. If ASA shares stick to their long-term uptrend, the option could likely see high-double-digit returns before expiration.
Disclosure: The author of this article has no position in the company mentioned here, but may trade after the next 72 hours. The author receives no compensation from any company mentioned in this article.