Perpetua’s Peculiar Pivot: A Fund’s Peculiar Predicament

On November 13, Anson Funds Management, that most meticulous of stewards, performed a rather dashing bit of portfolio jujitsu by offloading its entire stake in Perpetua Resources (PPTA 1.26%), a transaction valued at approximately $26.1 million. One imagines the fund’s analysts tapping their monocles in unison, muttering, “Well, that’s one way to avoid the post-liquidity blues.”

The Social Dilemma

Anson Funds, ever the pragmatists, elected to liquidate 2.15 million shares of Perpetua Resources in the third quarter, a feat accomplished with the precision of a well-timed tea party exit. The disclosure, filed with the SEC on the 13th, reads less like a financial maneuver and more like a polite retreat from a suddenly popular party. One might say the stock had become too the rage for the fund’s delicate sensibilities.

What Else to Know

Perpetua Resources, you see, had previously claimed 3.8% of the fund’s 13F AUM-a rather modest slice, akin to a guest overestimating their share of the cake. The top holdings post-filing, however, suggest a portfolio as varied as a gentleman’s hat collection:

NASDAQ:QUBT: $98.93 million (11.2% of AUM) – a stately acquisition, if one fancies quantum computing.
NASDAQ:ASST: $88.13 million (10.0% of AUM) – a dash of AI, perhaps?
NASDAQ:ORBS: $75.21 million (8.5% of AUM) – orbiting ambitions, one might say.
NASDAQ:SLMT: $66.67 million (7.6% of AUM) – a solid, if slightly somber, holding.
NASDAQ:MTCH: $48.49 million (5.5% of AUM) – a matchstick in a bonfire of assets.

As of Thursday, Perpetua’s shares were trading at $24.21, a figure that would make a Victorian banker faint with admiration. The stock had surged 129% in the past year, outpacing the S&P 500 like a thoroughbred leaving a leisurely stroll behind.

A Brief Portrait of Perpetua Resources

Metric	Value
Price (as of Thursday)	$24.21
Market capitalization	$2.95 billion
Net income (TTM)	($44.29 million)

Company Snapshot

Perpetua Resources, that indefatigable explorer, delves into gold, silver, and antimony-metals that, one suspects, are less “bling” and more “industrial necessity.” Its crown jewel, the Stibnite gold project in Idaho, is the sort of asset one might inherit from a particularly enterprising great-uncle.
The company operates on a resource development model, which sounds dashing until one realizes it involves digging holes in the ground and hoping for the best.
Its clientele, industrial and commodious, are the sort of customers who demand metals like they’re ordering tea and crumpets-but with higher stakes.

Perpetua Resources, in essence, is a U.S.-based enterprise that treats mineral exploration like a game of chance, with Idaho as its playing field and antimony as its wildcard.

Foolish Take

Perpetua’s stock, having scaled heights that would make Everest blush, has been buoyed by milestones at its Stibnite Gold Project. Since June and July, the company has raised hundreds of millions via equity offerings, broken ground, and danced perilously close to a $2.0 billion U.S. EXIM financing proposal. All of which is to say, the company has been faring rather well-too well, perhaps, for a fund that prefers its investments to behave like a well-bred poodle rather than a racehorse.

Yet, for all its triumphs, Perpetua remains pre-revenue, capital-hungry, and as fickle as a London fog. The recent equity raises and strategic investments have added layers of complexity, dilution risks, and timelines tighter than a corset at a royal ball. Thus, Anson’s full exit appears less a betrayal and more a sensible rearrangement of the furniture-like removing a particularly boisterous guest to restore the room’s equilibrium.

And let us not overlook the stock’s recent volatility, which has seen it plummet 17% in a month and 25% in October alone. For a fund seeking stability, such fluctuations are the financial equivalent of a dropped teacup-unavoidable, but best addressed with a swift exit and a firm handkerchief.

Glossary

13F reportable assets: The SEC’s way of ensuring that institutional investors don’t hide their holdings in a metaphorical drawer, like a guest concealing a second helping of pudding.

AUM (Assets under management): The sum total of a fund’s investments, or, in layman’s terms, the size of its hat collection.

Position: The amount of a security held, akin to the number of guests at a dinner party-manageable if small, chaotic if large.

Liquidated: The act of selling an asset, often with the grace of a man retreating from a conversation he’s lost.

Stake: An ownership interest, or, as one might say, a claim to a slice of the pie.

Quarterly average pricing: The average price of a security over three months, a figure as reliable as a weather forecast in the British Isles.

Outperforming: Achieving returns that make a benchmark weep with envy, though not necessarily with joy.

Resource development model: A business approach that treats the earth like a treasure chest, with a healthy dose of hope.

Strategic metals: Metals so vital to industry and defense that one suspects they have their own secret societies.

TTM: A 12-month period ending with the latest quarterly report, or, as one might say, the diary entry of a company’s finances.

And thus concludes this peculiar tale of profit, prudence, and the occasional plunge. 🎩

2026-01-02 02:03