Earnings Call Transcript - GROW Q2 2025

Operator, Operator

On slide number three, during this webcast, we may make forward-looking statements about our relative business outlook. Any forward-looking statements and all other statements made during this webcast that don't pertain to historical facts are subject to risks and uncertainties that may materially affect actual results. Please refer to our press release and corresponding Form 10-Q filing for more detail on factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from any described today and in forward-looking statements. Any such statements are made as of today and U.S. Global accepts no obligation to update them in the future. On slide number four, as always to our loyal shareholders, we invite you to email us at info@usfunds.com and we would love to send you one of our hats seen here. So just shoot us a message with your mailing address and we're happy to get you some USGI swag. All right. Now on slide number five, I will briefly review our company. U.S. Global Investors is an innovative investment manager with vast experience in global markets and specialized sectors. We are well known for our expertise in gold and precious metals, commodities, the global travel industry, and luxury goods. The company was originally founded as an investment club, becoming a registered investment advisor in 1968. The company has a long-standing history of global investing and launching first-of-their-kind investment products, including the first no-load gold fund. Finally, we are pioneers in smart beta 2.0 thematic products. Our investment team combines stock picking and portfolio construction to develop new products with thousands of hours of back testing and fine-tuning on a quarterly basis. Moving on to slide number six. This is a graphic we always like to begin our presentations with, the DNA of volatility. It acts as a reminder to investors about how various asset classes, especially the ones that we invest in, can move up or down over time. And this is where I want to hand the presentation over to CEO and CIO, Frank Holmes, to dive in a little more on this and give us a macro overview of the last quarter.

Frank Holmes, CEO and CIO

Thank you, Holly, and welcome, shareholders. I appreciate your loyalty and support. Before diving into the presentation details, I want to start by addressing the importance of understanding volatility in capital markets. Each asset class and stock has its own unique volatility characteristics. For instance, the S&P shows that a 1% move up or down is a non-event about 68% of the time, with a 10-day movement averaging 3%. Historically, gold's volatility was much greater compared to the S&P 500, but they have converged over time. GROW also used to have higher daily volatility linked to cryptocurrencies and gold funds, but our investments like HIVE Digital have influenced this volatility. Furthermore, JETS has shown strong correlation with oil prices, which is significant because falling oil prices last year were very advantageous for airlines. While many analysts were pessimistic, the ETF rose over 30%, and in our holdings, United's stock increased by 130%. Understanding this volatility is crucial for recognizing the factors that drive GROW's performance. I'm pleased to report that GROW's 10-day volatility is lower than that of the Dow Jones Asset Managers Index, likely influenced by our stock buyback strategy, especially on down days. I want to extend my gratitude to long-term investors like Perritt Capital and Vanguard, who are experts in microcap stocks. As CEO and Chief Investment Officer, I hold about 19% of all outstanding shares and approximately 99% of voting control. This structure is designed to protect our fund investors and ensure that any changes in control of the investment advisor are communicated to all shareholders. Our strategy focuses on creating sustainable thematic products using a smart beta 2.0 approach. This involves rigorous back-testing and detailed data analysis quarterly to make informed decisions and manage money systematically, particularly in thematic products. At U.S. Global Investors, our mission is to ensure our investors feel financially secure and that their wealth grows consistently. We cater to both traders and long-term asset allocators and strategically buy back stock, as we believe we are undervalued. We maintain cash reserves for future growth opportunities and market corrections and are actively seeking M&A activities to expand our subscriber base, which is a vital marketing metric. A crucial part of our operations involves our Board of Directors, and it was quite challenging to find someone with extensive experience in capital markets and mutual funds governed by the Investment Advisors Act of 1940. Bobby Duncan has joined us as a director and brings over 17 years of experience from U.S. Global, which is invaluable given his understanding of the regulatory landscape. Now, regarding the stock, our previous surges, particularly during the 2020-2021 period, corresponded with the dramatic growth of the JETS ETF, which went from $40 million to a peak of $4 billion in assets. Interestingly, while Warren Buffett exited the airline sector during the COVID scare, younger investors drove our stock from $10 to $28 before it settled back down. Currently, it's around $25, indicating a strong correlation with the airline industry. Overall, GROW has outperformed the Russell Microcap Index since 2019. Macro trends indicate a narrowing gap between active and passive ETFs, which is essential for technical aspects in launching new ETFs. The rise of active ETFs has been beneficial for companies like U.S. Global. We recently launched our first smart beta 2.0 product and believe it stands out in the market. Warren Buffett emphasizes the importance of buying back stock at value-accretive prices, benefiting all shareholders. We buy back stock because we believe GROW is undervalued, particularly during flat or down trading days. This strategy complements our initiatives to enhance shareholder value, such as increasing dividends and conducting buybacks, especially in light of positive changes in our assets. In the three months ending December 31, 2024, we repurchased 236,731 Class A shares for around $587,000. Our buyback program has shown a steady increase, reaching 807,000 shares in 2024. Despite the stock drift, mainly influenced by ETF redemptions, the travel industry is showing robust bookings, challenging the negative sentiment in some analyst predictions. Our smart investing strategy is to focus on growth at reasonable prices. The airline industry, making up about 9% of global GDP, offers significant growth potential—especially as we expand our footprint in Latin America. The current share price of $2.45 provides a yield of 3.67%, which is competitive despite being slightly below the 5-year government bond yield. Our total shareholder yield, combining dividends, buybacks, and debt reduction (with no debt on our books), is quite attractive. Over the past five and ten years, our shareholder yield has been impressive, demonstrating our commitment to delivering value. Despite challenges in the market, the company maintains positive cash flow and a strong balance sheet, enabling us to continue buybacks and monthly dividend payments. Our investment strategy combines advanced technology with robust data analysis, distinguishing us from competitors. For instance, our luxury goods fund, unique in the market, has consistently outperformed peers. This disciplined quant approach is backed by extensive historical analysis, enabling us to optimize portfolio construction effectively. We recently launched the U.S. Global Technology and Aerospace & Defense ETF, spurred by our ongoing interest in gold's correlation with Bitcoin and the evolving landscape of technology and defense. Our journey includes establishing HIVE as a public crypto mining company and exploring connections among sectors such as AI, military, and cybersecurity. We anticipate growing military spending over the next decade as geopolitical tensions increase, and this aligns with our new ETF’s focus on defense. As global defense spending rises, propelled by factors like China’s military expansion, our ETF addresses significant trends in military technology and spending, which we believe will offer substantial growth opportunities. Our flagship product, JETS, is experiencing record passenger numbers, reflecting positive industry developments as airlines navigate ongoing challenges. We believe JETS is undervalued relative to the broader market, providing a compelling growth narrative. Since the pandemic's onset, JETS has rebounded strongly, outperforming the market airline index and continuing to reveal robust growth potential as bookings remain strong. In conclusion, we recognize that gold prices have steadily increased, and GROW remains committed to our strategic goals. Overall, our investment in HIVE is yielding positive results, and GROW's financial position continues to show promise. Now, I will turn it over to Lisa Callicotte for further details on our earnings.

Lisa Callicotte, CFO

Thank you, Frank. Good morning. First, I'll start with our financial highlights on the next slide. As you can see, our average assets under management were $1.5 billion, operating revenues were $2.2 million, and we did have a net loss of $86,000. On the next slide, it talks a little bit more about our earnings. So we have both operational earnings, and we have investment earnings. Both the operational earnings and our realized earnings hit our cash flow where our unrealized earnings don't. But both, because our operational earnings are based on our advisory services and then our investment earnings are really the realized and unrealized gains, they both are affected by stock market forces. So that's what you'll see is some of the fluctuation and volatility in our income. On the next slide, this is part of our income statement. And you can see that our total revenues were $2.2 million for the quarter, which was a decrease of $587,000, or 21%, from the $2.8 million in the same quarter last year. This decrease is primarily due to a decrease in assets under management, especially in our JETS ETF. And our operating expenses for the quarter were $2.8 million. This was an increase of $144,000, or 5%, and was mainly due to an increase in employee compensation and benefits and was partially offset by a decrease in general and administrative expenses. On the next slide, we see our operating loss for the quarter was $539,000, and it was an unfavorable change of $731,000 compared to the same period last year. Other income decreased $1.1 million compared to the prior year, and it was mainly due to unrealized losses on equity and debt securities in the current period of $221,000 compared to unrealized gains in the prior period of $414,000. We also had realized foreign currency losses of $239,000 compared to $92,000 gains in the prior period. Net loss after taxes for the quarter was $86,000, or $0.01 per share, which was an unfavorable change of $1.3 million compared to the net income of $1.2 million, or $0.09 per share for the same quarter and fiscal year 2024. Moving to the next slide. You can see we still have a strong balance sheet. It includes high levels of cash, which will allow us to weather through this lower asset period. Cash and cash equivalents was $26 million, and we had current investments of $9.7 million. On the next slide is the detail of our other assets, and included in there are some other investments, which totaled $9.6 million. On the next slide, our liabilities decreased from June 2024, approximately $134,000, and we still have no long-term debt. On the next slide, you see our stockholders' equity detail. At December 31, 2024, the company had a net working capital of $38 million, which increased $182,000 since June 2024, and we had a current ratio of 20:1. With that, I'll pass it over to Holly to discuss marketing and distribution initiatives.

Operator, Operator

Thank you, Lisa. On this slide, we are proud to report that we continue to provide original, timely market insight through our YouTube channel. We have numerous new videos here and on our TikTok channel that we invite you to explore. We know one of the best ways to reach new and existing shareholders is increasingly through education, in particular, in the form of videos. So if you haven't checked out our YouTube channel yet, I highly recommend that you do so. All right. On the next slide, I want to highlight that our most popular piece is now available on our website. This is the Periodic Table of Commodity Returns for 2024 that shows exactly how various commodities fared in the prior year. This is an interactive feature as well as a downloadable PDF, so I encourage you to check it out on our website if you haven't done so already. And on this slide, in case you missed it, as Frank mentioned earlier in the presentation, our new aerospace and defense ETF, ticker symbol WAR, launched in the last quarter on December 30. And then on January 9, we hosted a webcast with Frank, and it was cohosted by Lieutenant General Retired, John Evans, seen here, about the state of the global defense market and how WAR can offer a diversified way to gain exposure. So you can request a copy of the replay by sending us an email at info@usfunds.com. On the next slide, we always like to recap the most read Frank Talk blog posts during each quarter. As you can see here, the top themes seem to focus on gold and precious metals as gold was continuing to reach a new all-time high as well as defense and cybersecurity. If you aren't a subscriber already, be sure to visit usfunds.com and sign up. It's completely free. So finally, on my last slide, I do encourage you to follow U.S. Global across social media. We are on Twitter or X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram, and Facebook. So wherever you prefer to get your news, be sure to check us out. This way, you're up-to-date with what's going on with GROW, our funds, and the broader market insights. All right. Just as a reminder to our audience today, if you have any questions, you can email those to info@usfunds.com, and we will gladly follow up with you to get anything clarified that you may need more information on. So thank you for tuning in today. That concludes our webcast summarizing the second quarter of fiscal year 2025.