A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc.

Good afternoon and welcome to AMARC Precious Metals conference call for the fiscal first quarter ended September 30th, 2021. My name is Cherise and I will be your operator this afternoon. Before this call, AMARC issued its results for the fiscal first quarter 2022 in a press release, which is available in the investor relations section of the company's website at www.amarc.com. You can find the link to the investor relations section at the top of the homepage. Joining us for today's call are AMARC's CEO, Greg Roberts, President Thor Gjertum, and CFO, Kathleen Simpson-Taylor. Following their remarks, we will open the call to your questions. Then, before we conclude the call, I'll provide the necessary cautions regarding the forward-looking statements made by management during this call. I would like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be made available for replay via a link available in the investor relations section of AMARC's website. Now I would like to turn the call over to AMARC CEO, Mr. Greg Roberts.

Thank you, Charisse, and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you again for joining our call today. As you can see from our earnings release, Q1 marked another solid quarter as AMARC delivered $26 million of net income and diluted EPS of $2.17. We also generated $41.1 million in adjusted pre-tax income and return on equity of over 7%. Our gross margins remain strong at 2.78, notably better than last year's comparable quarter of 1.94. As more of our business is now weighted towards our higher margin direct-to-consumer or our DTC segment, which continues to be a strong contributor for us. Within our DTC segment, JM Bullion continues to deliver solid results and has integrated seamlessly into our broader organization. In fact, accounting for approximately 44%, of AMARC's gross profit in the quarter. Macro conditions continue to be very supportive of our business, characterized by demand from both retail and wholesale customers, coupled with ongoing supply constraints that provide opportunities for us since we have more reliable access to supply. It's worth noting that the precious metals industry experienced slightly subdued conditions at the beginning of our first fiscal quarter. However, as the quarter progressed, conditions improved. Overall, these market conditions continue to validate our strategy of having a fully integrated platform that can provide reliable access to a wide variety of supply while reaching a diversified base of wholesale and retail customers with products and value added services. We continue to be focused on improving and optimizing performance through initiatives such as innovative product offerings to our customers and developing marketing enhancements to reduce customer acquisition costs and reach new target audience within our DTC. JMB's recent offerings included a very successful product offering celebrating its 10th anniversary. Now, I'm going to turn over to our CFO, Kathleen Simpson-Taylor, to walk you through our financials in more detail. Then our President, Thor Jerdrum, will discuss our KPIs and operational metrics. Afterwards, I'll provide a further update on our business and growth strategy and take your questions. Kathleen?

Thank you, Greg, and good afternoon, everyone. Our revenues for fiscal Q1 2022 increased 8% to $2.01 billion, from $1.87 billion in Q1 of last year. The increase in revenues was due to an increase in silver ounces sold at higher selling prices partially offset by lower gold ounces sold at lower selling prices. JM Bullion contributed $472.3 million of revenue to the quarter. Gross profit for fiscal Q1 2022 increased 55% to $56 million or 2.78% of revenue from $36.1 million or 1.94% of revenue in Q1 of last year. The gross profit increase was due to higher gross profits earned from our DTC segment, including $24.7 million contributed by JMB. SG&A expenses for fiscal Q1 2022 increased 76% to $16.7 million from $9.5 million in Q1 of last year. The increase was primarily due to $6 million of expenses incurred by JMB, $0.7 million of consulting and professional fees, higher insurance costs of $0.4 million, and increased compensation expense. including performance-based accruals of 0.2 million. Depreciation and amortization expense for fiscal Q1 2022 increased 1,551% to 8.3 million from 0.5 million in Q1 of last year. The increase was primarily due to 7.7 million of amortization of the acquired intangibles related to JMB. Interest income for fiscal Q1 2022 increased 39% to $5.5 million from $4 million in Q1 of last year. The aggregate increase was primarily due to higher interest income earned by our secured lending segment and higher other finance product income. Interest expense for fiscal Q1 2022 increased 28% to 5.5 million from 4.3 million in Q1 of last fiscal year. The increase in interest expense was primarily driven by 0.7 million related to product financing arrangements, 0.4 million associated with our trading credit facility and notes payable, and 0.2 million of loan servicing fees offset by a $0.2 million decrease in interest and fees associated with liabilities on borrowed metals. Earnings from equity method investments for fiscal Q1 2022 decreased 64% to $1.5 million from $4.1 million in Q1 of last year. The decrease was due to a $3.7 million reduction in equity method income from JMB as it is now a wholly owned subsidiary. This was offset by increased earnings of $1 million from the company's other equity method investments. Net income attributable to the company for the first fiscal quarter of 2022 totaled $26 million or $2.17 per diluted share. This compares to net income attributable to the company of $23.1 million or $3.09 per diluted share in Q1 of last year. Our diluted EPS for the fiscal first quarter of 2022 is based on the weighted average shares outstanding of 12 million, compared with 7.5 million weighted average shares outstanding during the first quarter of last year. Adjusted net income before provision for income taxes, a non-GAAP measure which excludes acquisition expenses, amortization, and depreciation, for Q1 fiscal 2022 totaled $41.1 million, an improvement of $10.4 million compared to $30.7 million for Q1 fiscal 2021. Now turning to our balance sheet. At quarter end, we had $29.6 million of cash compared to $101.4 million at the end of our fiscal year 2021. Our fiscal year 2021 cash balances were higher due to our planned precious metals purchases in early July. Our tangible net worth at the end of the quarter was $184.9 million, up from $169.4 million at the end of our fiscal year. That completes my financial summary. Now I will turn the call over to Thor, who will provide an update on our key performance metrics.