Gold.com (GOLD) 第四财季及2026财年业绩电话会：营收翻倍，派发1美元特别股息

核心要点

• 2026财年第四季度营收同比增长99%至50亿美元，这主要得益于黄金和白银售价上涨、黄金销量增加、远期销售以及对Monex和Sunshine Minting, Inc.（SMI）的收购。
• 毛利润增长35%至1.103亿美元，但毛利率从3.25%收窄至2.2%。由于销售、一般及管理费用（SG&A）增长46%，EBITDA下降3%至2820万美元。
• 全年营收达255亿美元，增长132%；归属于Gold.com的净利润升至8230万美元，即摊薄后每股收益为3.02美元。
• Gold.com在2026财年结束时拥有5.780亿美元现金和16亿美元的非受限库存。公司在维持每股0.20美元常规股息的同时，宣布发放每股1.00美元的特别股息。
• 管理层表示，需求在3月中旬至4月初之间开始放缓，并在整个2026财年第四季度及2027财年第一季度的前两个月中持续疲软。
• 与Tether的合作带来了高交易量、低利润率的交易、存储和贵金属租赁业务。管理层表示，目前的租赁和存储头寸是最初披露水平的数倍。

核心财务数据

第四季度SG&A费用的增加主要反映了薪酬费用的上升（包括1710万美元的基于业绩的提拨），以及广告和保险成本的增加。Monex和SMI贡献了第四季度SG&A费用中的820万美元。

业务与运营表现

Gold.com在2026财年第四季度销售了52.1万盎司黄金，同比增长51%，环比下降1%。全年黄金销量增长24%至200万盎司。

第四季度白银销量共计1530万盎司，同比下降2%，环比下降48%。全年白银销量基本维持不变，为7360万盎司。

直接面向消费者（DTC）业务部门在第四季度新增了6.79万名客户，同比下降38%，环比下降77%。得益于收购Monex和有机增长，DTC总客户数达到约470万，增长13%。管理层表示，JM Bullion继续表现良好，AI举措和更广泛的移动端应用推动了生产力的提升。

批发销售与辅助服务部门在各业务和地区实现全面增长。受公司造币、物流和交易能力的支撑，Gold.com的开市客（Costco）业务也继续取得积极成果。管理层认为，面向社交媒体和游戏化的零售平台是触达年轻客户的潜在渠道。

截至2026年6月30日，担保贷款总数为367笔，环比增长9%，但同比下降18%。贷款组合价值为1.151亿美元，较3月31日下降9%，但较上年同期增长22%。

于2026年4月被收购的SMI扩大了Gold.com的产能，并实现了造币业务的垂直整合。管理层预计，随着整合后的造币业务规模扩大，将产生运营协同效应，同时指出，全资控股并未实质性改变SMI与美国造币厂（U.S. Mint）及其他主权造币厂的长期供应关系。

风险与关注领域

• 管理层表示，贵金属需求的软化趋势延续到了2027财年第一季度的前两个月。销售量的下降可能会抵消产品溢价走强的正面影响。
• 高利率被认为是金价和银价面临的逆风因素。管理层还表示，近期价格下跌并未引发散户投资者显著的逢低买入热情。
• 机构和批发业务活动保持相对稳健，但这些业务的利润率普遍低于DTC销售。
• 关税的不确定性同时带来了潜在机遇与阻力，特别是对于在美国进口和分销的主权造币厂产品而言。
• Gold.com重新面临期货溢价（contango）环境。未用于对冲库存的过剩黄金租赁可能会因租赁费和期货溢价而产生成本。
• 第四季度DTC新客户获取明显放缓，但管理层表示正在开发新的营销举措。

分析师问答亮点

需求与利润率状况：管理层将第四季度EBITDA表现较为平缓归因于经历了一个异常活跃的第三财季后需求下降及销量减少。放缓始于3月中旬至4月初左右，并延续至2027财年。

与Tether的合作：Gold.com正在与Tether就存储、交易、黄金租赁及白银租赁展开合作。该业务目前贡献了较高的交易量，但利润率较低。管理层预计，随着Gold.com部署基于租赁的流动性并寻求高于其租赁成本的收益，可能需要几个季度才能实现更多的融资效益。

资本配置：管理层重申了对定期季度股息的承诺，并表示在特殊时期可能会发放额外的特别股息。当股价折价于账面价值时，可能会考虑回购股票。此外，公司在评估战略性并购机会方面依然保持积极，特别是在市场低迷时期。

收藏品业务拓展：管理层形容收藏品市场强劲，并表示Stack’s Bowers有望在为期5至6天的拍卖期内售出超过5000万美元的产品。Gold.com还在评估体育卡领域的机遇，其CFC贷款业务已在该领域提供融资。

财报电话会议完整转录

完整财报电话会议逐字稿

管理层陈述

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to Gold.com's conference call for the fiscal fourth quarter ended June 30, 2026. My name is Matthew, and I'll be your operator this afternoon. Before this call, Gold.com issued its results for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026 in a press release, which is available in the Investor Relations section of the company's website at www.gold.com. You can find the link in the Investor Relations section at the top of the homepage.

Joining us for today's call are Gold.com's CEO, Greg Roberts; President, Thor Gjerdrum; and CFO, Cary Dickson. Following their remarks, we'll open the call for 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'd like to remind everyone that this call is being recorded and will be available for replay via a link available in the Investor Relations section of Gold.com's website.

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Gold.com's CEO, Mr. Greg Roberts. Sir, please proceed.

Gregory Roberts

Thank you, Matthew, and good afternoon to everyone. Thank you for joining our call today. Our fourth quarter results reflect our strategic execution and further demonstrate our strong value proposition as we continue leveraging the breadth of our capabilities across our fully integrated platform. Our results are reflective of the economic and geopolitical environment after precious metal prices retreated from the historical high levels we experienced in Q3.

Revenues for our quarter nearly doubled to $5 billion compared to the prior year, driven in part by acquisitions, and we are pleased to deliver a 35% increase in gross profit, along with a net income of $12 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.41. In our Direct-to-Consumer, the increase in revenues was driven by higher average order values as well as our acquisition of Monex in January. We continue to be encouraged by the performance of Monex since the acquisition. JM Bullion continues to perform well, and we are also seeing meaningful productivity improvements from key technology initiatives around AI as well as increasing mobile adoption.

Growth in the Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment was broad-based across businesses and geographies, reflecting continued interest in precious metals and an expanding customer base. Our strategic partnership with Tether, now several months into execution, continues to translate into tangible results across the business. We are seeing increased demand for secured lending, driven by our marketing efforts and expanded interest by owners in borrowing against their bullion and collectible portfolios.

Our Secured Lending segment delivered improved profitability in the current quarter compared to the prior year. The growth in our storage and secured lending business enables us to forge deeper, more durable relationships with our customers and drive incremental business across the most complete vertical stack in the industry. As we continue to leverage the strategic investments we've made to build a vertically integrated model spanning the entire precious metals ecosystem, we are seeing an expanding set of opportunities with major retailers and institutional customers as well as new potential channels of distribution in numismatics and other collectibles.

These new channels represent an opportunity to expand our product portfolio into adjacent alternative asset categories where we are seeing significant interest in growth. Our latest acquisitions are performing well, and we continue to make progress on integration efforts. Our Sunshine Mint transaction we closed in April was a major milestone that significantly expands our total production capacity and creates a clear pathway to capturing additional value and market share globally.

With its strong capabilities and capacity, Sunshine Mint is well positioned to serve the growing demand from the United States Mint and other sovereign mints around the world. In addition, we've significantly expanded our capabilities with state-of-the-art facilities, enhancing Gold.com's ability to develop differentiated products for our broader valued customers and own portfolio of brands.

As we continue to grow and scale our combined minting business, we expect to realize meaningful operating synergies. Market conditions remain constructive, underlying trends across our business remains strong, and we are well positioned for broad-based growth and delivering long-term value to our shareholders. Today, we are pleased to announce a special dividend of $1 per share in addition to maintaining our regular dividend of $0.20 per share. We intend to continue deploying capital efficiently and are excited at what lies ahead for Gold.com.

With that, I turn the call over to our Chief Financial Officer, Cary Dickson, who will provide an overview of our financial performance. Then our President, Thor Gjerdrum, will discuss our key operating metrics. I will then provide further insights into our business and growth strategy as well as take your questions. Cary?

Cary Dickson

Thank you, Greg, and good afternoon, everyone. I hope everyone is having a great day. Our revenues for fiscal Q4 increased 99% to $5 billion from $2.5 billion in Q4 of last year. Excluding an increase of $0.9 billion of forward sales, our revenues increased $1.6 billion or 94%, which was due to higher average selling prices of gold and silver as well as an increase in gold ounces sold, partially offset by a decrease in silver ounces sold. Revenues also increased due to the acquisition of Monex in January of 2026 and SMI in April of '26.

For the full fiscal year, revenues increased 132% to $25.5 billion from $11 billion in fiscal '25. Excluding an increase of $8.3 billion of forward sales, our revenues increased $6.2 billion or 95% due to higher average selling prices of gold and silver as well as an increase in gold ounces sold, partially offset by a decrease in silver ounces sold. Revenues also increased due to the acquisition of SGI, Pinehurst and AMS in the last 2 quarters of fiscal '25, Monex in the third quarter of fiscal '26 and SMI in the fourth quarter of fiscal '26.

Gross profit for fiscal Q4 increased 35% to $110.3 million or 2.2% of revenue from $81.7 million or 3.25% of revenue in Q4 of last year. The increase was due to an increase in gross profits earned by both our Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment and our Direct-to-Consumer segment, including the acquisition of Monex and SMI. For the full fiscal year, gross profit increased 115% to $453.1 million or 1.78% of revenue from $210.9 million or 1.92% of revenue in fiscal '25.

The increase was due to an increase in gross profits earned by both our Wholesale Sales & Ancillary segment and our Direct-to-Consumer segment, including the acquisition of Monex and SMI, which were not included in the same year ago period and SGI, Pinehurst and AMS, which were only partially included in the same year ago period. SG&A expenses for fiscal Q4 increased 46% to $77.9 million from $53.4 million in Q4 of last year. The change is primarily due to an increase in compensation expense, including performance-based accruals of $17.1 million, higher advertising costs of $2.2 million and an increase in insurance costs of $2.7 million.

SG&A expenses for Q4 '26 included $8.2 million of expenses incurred by Monex and SMI, which were not included in the same year ago period. For full fiscal year, SG&A expenses increased 98% to $275.6 million from $139.2 million in fiscal '25, primarily due to an increase in compensation expense of $85.8 million, higher advertising costs of $20.4 million, an increase in insurance costs of $8.7 million and an increase in consulting and professional fees of $7.4 million.

SG&A expenses for the year included $104.3 million of expenses incurred by Monex and SMI, which were not included in the same year ago period and SGI, Pinehurst, AMS were only partially included in the same year ago period. Depreciation and amortization expense for fiscal Q4 increased 18% to $10.1 million from $8.6 million in Q4 of last year. The change is primarily due to an increase in depreciation expense of $1.2 million and an increase in amortization expense of $1.9 million related to intangible assets acquired through our acquisitions of Monex and SMI, partially offset by a decrease of $1.6 million in SGI, AMS and SGB intangible amortization -- asset amortization.

For the full fiscal year, depreciation and amortization expense increased 52% to $34.8 million from $22.9 million in fiscal '25 due to an increase in amortization expense of $11.6 million related to the intangible assets acquired through our acquisitions of SGI, Pinehurst, AMS, Monex and SMI and an increase in depreciation expense of $5.8 million, partially offset by a decrease of $5.6 million in JMB and SGB intangible asset amortization.

Interest income for fiscal Q4 increased 40% to $7.5 million from $5.3 million in Q4 of last year. The increase was due to higher interest income earned by our Secured Lending segment of $0.8 million, our Direct-to-Consumer segment of $0.7 million and our Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment of $0.6 million. For the full fiscal year, interest income decreased 1% to $25.6 million from $25.9 million in fiscal '25 due to a $2.4 million decrease in interest income earned by our Wholesale Sales & Ancillary Services segment, partially offset by an increase in interest earned by our Secured Lending segment of $1.0 million and an increase in interest earned by our Direct-to-Consumer segment of $1.1 million.

Interest expense for fiscal Q4 increased 3% to $13.2 million from $12.9 million in Q4 of last year. The increase is primarily due to a $5.3 million increase related to precious metal leases, $0.8 million increase related to product financing arrangements and $0.7 million increase related to other interest charges, partially offset by a $6.4 million decrease associated with our trading credit facility. For the full fiscal year, interest expense increased 32% to $61 million from $46.2 million in fiscal '25, primarily due to $11 million increase related to precious metal leases, $8 million increase related to product financing arrangements, partially offset by a $5.4 million decrease associated with our trading credit facility.

Earnings from our equity method investment for fiscal Q4 increased 364% to $2 million from a loss of $0.8 million in Q4 of last year. For the full fiscal year, earnings from equity method investments increased 255% to $4.4 million from a loss of $2.8 million in fiscal '25. Net income attributable to the company for fiscal Q4 totaled $12.2 million or 41% -- $0.41 per diluted share compared to net income of $10.3 million or 41% (sic) [$0.41] per diluted share in Q4 of last year.

For the full fiscal year, net income attributable to the company totaled $82.3 million or $3.02 per diluted share compared to $17.3 million or 71% -- $0.71 per diluted share in fiscal '25. Adjusted net income before provision for income taxes, a non-GAAP financial measure, which excludes depreciation, amortization, acquisition costs, remeasurement gains or losses and contingent fair value consideration, totaled $24.7 million for fiscal Q4, an increase of 29% compared to $19.2 million in Q4 of last year.

For the full fiscal year, adjusted net income totaled $139.9 million, an increase of 164% compared to $53.1 million in fiscal '25. EBITDA, a non-GAAP liquidity measure, totaled $28.2 million for fiscal Q4, a decrease of 3% compared to $29.2 million in Q4 of last year. For the full fiscal year, EBITDA totaled $179.8 million, an increase of 179% to $64.4 million in fiscal '25.

Turning to the balance sheet. We maintained a strong liquidity position and ended the quarter with $578 million in cash compared to $77.7 million at the end of fiscal '25. Our nonrestricted inventories totaled $1.6 billion as of June 30, '26 compared to $794.8 million at the end of fiscal '25. That completes my financial summary.

I will now turn the call over to Thor, who will provide an update on our key operating metrics. Thor?

Thor Gjerdrum

Thank you, Cary. Looking at our key operating metrics for the fiscal fourth quarter and full year 2026, we sold 521,000 ounces [indiscernible] '26, which is up 51% from Q4 of last year and down 1% from the prior quarter. For the full fiscal year, we sold 2 million ounces of gold, which was up 24% from last fiscal year. We sold 15.3 million ounces of silver in Q4 2026, which is down 2% from Q4 of last year and down 48% from the prior quarter.

For the full fiscal year, we sold 73.6 million ounces of silver, which remained relatively unchanged from last fiscal year. The number of new customers in the DTC segment, which is defined as those who registered, set up a new account or made a purchase for the first time during the period, was 67,900 in Q4 2026. This was down 38% from Q4 of last year and down 77% from the prior quarter. For the 3 months ended March 31, 2026, approximately 58% of the new customers were attributable to the acquisition of Monex.

For the 3 months ended June 30, 2025, approximately 30% of the new customers were attributable to the acquisition of AMS. For the full fiscal year, the number of new customers in the DTC segment was 526,300, which was down 53% from prior fiscal year. Approximately 33% of the new customers for fiscal year 2026 were attributable to the acquisition of Monex. Approximately 79% of the new customers in fiscal 2025 were attributable to the acquisitions of SGI, Pinehurst and AMS.

The number of total customers in the DTC segment at the end of the fourth quarter was approximately 4.7 million, which is a 13% increase from the prior year. The year-over-year increase in total customers was due to the acquisition of Monex as well as organic growth of our DTC customer base. Finally, the number of secured loans as of June 30, 2026, totaled 367, a 9% increase from March 31, 2026, and an 18% decrease from June 30, 2025. The dollar value of our loan portfolio at the end of fiscal year totaled $115.1 million, a 9% decrease from March 31, 2026, and a 22% increase from June 30, 2025. That concludes my prepared remarks.

I now turn it back over to Greg for closing remarks. Greg?

Gregory Roberts

Thank you, Thor. Thank you, Cary. Fiscal '26 was a transformational year, highlighted by continued growth through both organic expansion and strategic acquisitions, our rebranding to Gold.com and outstanding financial results that underscored the strength of our vertically integrated model. Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, with our expanded brand portfolio and ongoing focus on integration and optimization opportunities, we remain confident in Gold.com's long-term growth strategy and our continuing ability to deliver shareholder value.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Your first question is coming from Mike Baker from D.A. Davidson.

分析师问答

Michael Baker

Congratulations on a great year. As it relates to this quarter, you said the environment softened a little bit. Can you just describe the environment, I guess, in the June quarter? And if you wouldn't mind now that we're 2 months into the September quarter, how things are looking now? One measure is that EBITDA in the June quarter was flat year-over-year, yet at least the way we look at it, we get -- prices have come down, but spreads have really widened quite a bit versus last year, maybe not where they were in December, but widened versus last year. So I guess I'm wondering why you wouldn't be more profitable in this June quarter versus the same quarter last year?

Gregory Roberts

Well, actually, I think that silver premiums have actually narrowed. So I'm not exactly sure what numbers you're looking at. But definitely, in this last quarter, we've seen less demand. So even if the premiums are up, if we're selling less ounces, we're going to make less money. So I do think that it sounds simple to just look at spreads on certain products, but we deal in thousands and thousands of products and premiums are different across all of those products. So I'm -- it's a little broader than that.

As it relates to the first question, I think we started to see a slowdown mid-March to the beginning of April, and that continued through Q4 and has continued for the first 2 months of Q1 '27. As I've said many times before, this on again, off again war situation is just -- it's just not -- it's not great for a lot of things. But in particular, our customers tend to, I think, sit on their hands a little bit more, and I've said this before. So it is the nature of our business that everybody by now should know we can make our entire year in 1 quarter, which is -- we just did that.

So when the environment sets up, we're going to take advantage of it, and we're going to have an incredible year like we did this year. But that doesn't mean that it's going to be even across 4 quarters nor does it mean that it's -- each quarter is going to compare positively or negatively to the previous year. So I think we're in great shape. I think we believe that we're focused on everything that I've talked about in the opening statements. And the business is very healthy, and we're getting as much out of the environment as we are able to.

Michael Baker

Great. Fair enough. And if I could ask one follow-up. I was intrigued by some of the comments you made about some of the business you do with major retailers. Do you mean Costco? If you could update us on that as well as some of the new channels that you're thinking about, collectibles, perhaps, things along those lines.

Gregory Roberts

Yes. I think the Costco business for us is very good right now, and that's spearheaded by Bobby Belandis and our Silver Gold Bull Calgary office. We continue to see good results, and I believe that we're the right customer for the right vendor for Costco. We are able to service them with our mints, our logistics, our trading and Bobby is doing a great job there. As it relates to some of the other retailers or retail platforms that we are looking at.

We are -- there are a number of new digital platforms out there that are selling both bullion and collectible products in a little bit different way, a little bit younger demographic. There's been a bit of gamification to some of the retailers that are selling products that we're supplying. And we feel good that this is a social media type retail platforms are a great opportunity for us to find new clients and also achieve a younger demographic.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Thomas Forte from Maxim Group.

Thomas Forte

Great. So congratulations, Greg, Cary and Thor. I have one question, one follow-up. I'll go one at a time. So Greg, it's always fun to ask you questions, so I don't know the answer, whereas I have a suspicion. So how should we think about the implications of higher-for-longer interest rate environment and then the short-term impact of rising rates on consumer and investors' interest in precious metals?

Gregory Roberts

Yes, that's a great question. I have never seen in my 50 years of being in this business, I've never really seen a situation where gold is behaving much more as an asset class than a hedge. And it's pretty clear right now that interest -- higher interest rates are sapping the momentum of gold spot prices as well as silver prices and gold and silver tend to perform better historically in lower interest rate environment. So as it relates to the spot prices of gold and silver right now, I think they are directly tied to interest rates.

I think the other factor that is pretty apparent to me now is that when the war is on, both gold and silver spot prices decrease and our business tends to flatten a bit. And we just -- over the last 3 or 4 months, we've seen some dips in metal prices, which I think are related at least in some part to interest rates, but we haven't seen a dip buying or dip enthusiasm with our retail customers.

Our institutional and wholesale business has been pretty good. But as everybody knows, that business is a little bit lower margin business. So it's -- every day is a new day for us. Once I think there's a trend or there's a way to, kind of, figure out what's going on, and you wake up and something is different or something's changed in the macro environment, and we just adapt to that every hour of every day, 24/7, and that's what we do here.

Thomas Forte

Excellent. And then I apologize, my second one is more boring. Can you -- since you're paying a onetime dividend, congratulations for that, can you give us your high-level thoughts on capital allocation, including strategic M&A, quarterly dividends, onetime dividends and buybacks? I think you did all 4 this fiscal. I have to double check the buyback, but I feel like you did everything this year.

Gregory Roberts

Yes. I mean I think I've said for the last 10 years that when we have a great year, we're going to try to give back to the shareholders with a special dividend. This year was a perfect example of that. I think we continue to be committed to our quarterly dividend. But when we have exceptional quarters or exceptional years, we will likely give back a little bit of that. I think as it relates to buybacks, I think with a nearly $1 billion book value in our company, I think I always try to project that I view the business based as a multiple of our book.

And if the price gives us a chance or an opportunity to buy back at a discount to our book value, we're going to take a long, hard look at that. Related to M&A, as many long-time listeners to this conference and shareholders know, we've been very active in M&A, and I don't think that's going to slow down. So the problem with M&A is there has to be a deal, there has to be a price and then it takes a while to diligence and close a deal. And so you don't want to -- I try not to fixate on any one of the different capital allocation silos or pillars that we look at.

But I think that what we have found historically is when you have short-term slowdowns in the marketplace, which as you can tell by this quarter, although I thought it was a good quarter, we did slow down a little bit. It does tend to create opportunities in M&A where sellers are maybe a little less enthusiastic about their performance. So right now it is a point in time where I'm working very hard to assess and look at any potential opportunities.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Craig Irwin from ROTH Capital.

Andrew Scutt

It's Andrew on for Craig. Congrats on the strong year. First one for me, can you just, kind of, help us further understand how the Tether partnership contributed in the quarter? And maybe what areas you guys have hit the ground running and what you guys are looking at to further develop over the near term?

Gregory Roberts

Yes. I would say that Q4 was a little bit of a get to know you digesting period with Tether. And I think that we have found a very good opportunity that's a win-win for both sides where we've been able to help Tether with their storage, their trading. We have a very high amount of -- high dollar amount of gold leases and silver leases from them. And our storage with them has been very good. And so I think you can see some of that in our top line numbers for the quarter.

The business is -- the business that we're currently doing with Tether is lower margin, higher volume numbers. And so I don't think you could say that it's going to make or break a quarter right now. I think we continue, as you can see from our Q3 results, we do very well in our DTC businesses and our retail customers are active in buying physical metal. But so far, the opportunities and results that we're seeing with Tether have been particularly exciting, and I'm looking forward to the future. And I think the sky is the limit as it relates to what we can do with Tether.

So continuing to get -- to find opportunities where we can bring value to them as well as they're bringing value to us. But I will say that based on the disclosures and the transaction details that we put out with Tether as it related to the gross position of leases and the size of their storage, we're currently at multiples of the numbers that we put out. So it's certainly moving in the right direction, which is somewhat reflected in our liquidity and our opportunities that are being given to us.

Andrew Scutt

Great. Really appreciate the color there. And second for me, a little unrelated. Now that you guys have SMI as a fully owned asset with them being a supplier of blanks to the U.S. Mint and other sovereign mints, is there any way this, kind of, deepens the relationship you guys have with the sovereign mints and can, kind of, support the business here?

Gregory Roberts

Yes. I don't see that as a big change. I think we've been supplying whether we own 0, 48% or 100% of Sunshine, we've been supplying -- Sunshine has been supplying blanks to the Mint for 20 years. So that hasn't really changed. I think that as it relates to the other sovereign mints, certainly, at the moment, the on-again, off-again tariffs create some potential opportunities for us with the sovereign mints. But at the moment, the tariffs are causing headwinds as it relates to sovereign mints selling to us and then having us redistribute in the United States.

I think our Singapore and Hong Kong offices are benefiting from some -- from our relationship with the sovereign mints. So I think that's a good thing. But I don't think that our ownership percentage, particularly with Sunshine, it changes anything with the sovereign mints. It's -- they are strong relationships that have been there for quite some time.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Brian McNamara from Canaccord.

Brian McNamara

Kind of a follow-up here on Tether. I think in May, you mentioned that the gold lease sign was higher than you had projected in the release. And then I think you just said earlier in the answer to a couple of questions ago that it was multiples of what was in the release. Can we get any more granular on the sizing of that and, kind of, where that can potentially get to? And, kind of, is this -- I guess you mentioned the first quarter was, kind of, a feeling out period. Like, how long of that time period would you expect that to take?

Gregory Roberts

Yes. I think multiples is as far as I want to go right now. But I would say that we have -- are developing and have a good relationship with Tether, and it appears that what we are doing with them so far has been a win-win, hearing from their side, we're providing some opportunities for them that they aren't able to take advantage of with other trading partners. So I think we are going to continue to look at opportunities with Tether. And I expect us to learn a lot from them, and I expect that they're going to bring their expertise and know-how on some other particularly digital products that we might work on. So like I said earlier, I think the sky is the limit, and we're very, very happy with the relationship. We're happy with the investment, and we look to grow the relationship with them.

Brian McNamara

And then secondly, numismatics seems like a business that's really seeing robust structural growth. I think Dick's Sporting did last week called out its trading cards and collectibles business as being quite strong in an otherwise weak quarter. What are the opportunities there for you guys, both organically and inorganically?

Gregory Roberts

Yes. I mean I think all the hard asset classes right now are repricing and are seeing growth across all of the hard asset classes. So I think collectibles falls into that. We're having a one of our largest auction weeks of the year right now is going on with Stack's Bowers. And it looks like we're going to sell in excess of $50 million worth of products over the 5- to 6-day period at Stack's. And the prices thus far over the last 2 days have been very strong. So I think that the collectibles market is very robust.

And I think that particularly in the sports cards area that you have -- you just mentioned, I do think there's opportunity. Now the prices have been -- are very much up from 3 or 4 years ago. So that would be a little bit of cautious there. But we do -- our lending business, CFC does lend on sports cards, and we've had a good deal of success getting to know the market through providing liquidity and being a lender. And I think sports cards is an area that we can look to grow in the future at the Stack's Bowers level.

Operator

Your next question is coming from Greg Gibas from Northland Securities.

Gregory Gibas

Congrats on the strong year. I wanted to maybe just dive a little bit deeper on, kind of, any shifts within your DTC segment or I guess, in terms of trends you're seeing with consumer buying behavior. And I know you touched on purchasing patterns and those being, kind of, tied to war-related developments. But perhaps product preferences -- or I'm sorry, product category preferences or anything you can share there?

Gregory Roberts

Yes. Just to start, I mean, in our Q3, as I said earlier, our customer base was just going crazy buying product and the premiums were higher, and there was just -- you had $120 silver and you had $5,000-plus gold, and it was in the news every day. And I think from my perspective, I was thrilled that we were able to perform and deliver product quickly to customers when they asked for it. And I think our infrastructure and all of our DTC brands outperformed what I would have expected as well as our distribution business, AMGL.

So I think that in that quarter, in particular, all of the retail customers across all of our platforms were in buy mode. At the same time, they were also in sell mode, which we've talked about before. So longer-term buyers were liquidating some of their material at the higher spot prices. So it was a very good environment for us. I think we continue to see buybacks be a big part of our trading businesses. And older silver products, in particular, are trading at a discount, which puts a bit of a headwind on newer silver products that we manufacture. Now we've augmented our production with a number of higher premium specialty products at our mints, but the higher-margin specialty products just don't sell in the volume as the straight 1-ounce silver round or the 1-ounce gold bar.

So it's a little bit of a mixed bag, but I'm very, very happy with our retail base. You can probably see from the numbers that our new client acquisition has slowed a little bit over the last quarter. And we're working on new marketing. We're working on new ways to attract new customers. And I think we have some great opportunities and some great initiatives.

But if you go back and you see when we're very busy and the markets are really on fire, we're going to get 2 or 3x as many new customers in a month and maybe we're going to get in a slower period. So again, thrilled and excited about how we perform and how we're performing both in a little bit slower quarter in Q4, but more importantly, how we're able to really take advantage quickly when the market gives us an opportunity.

Gregory Gibas

Got it. That's helpful. And then unrelated here, but could you maybe remind us of the impact of costs associated with backwardation in the March quarter? I was trying to get a better sense of maybe the uplift you saw in Q4 as it related to just those non-normalized headwinds and perhaps just how financing costs trended when taking into account or accounting for the benefit from savings from Tether on the financing side?

Gregory Roberts

Yes. We haven't really been able to recognize some of those savings yet. I think that what you can see from our filings is going to be a decrease in our credit facility as it relates to our dollar facility, and you're going to see an increase, which we've just talked about related to our leases that we've disclosed that we are getting -- that Tether is booking with us. So the leases are very important -- as it relates to backwardation and contango right now, we are back in a contango situation. The backwardation eased off as the market slowed down and spot prices came down in February and -- I mean, I'm sorry, in March and April.

So our big job right now is -- the gold leases for us are great if we have inventory that we need to hedge using the gold leases. If we have excess leases and we don't have inventory to hedge, we're going to pay the lease fee plus we're going to have to pay the contango. So that can be a bit of a headwind. I think our job over the next 6 to 9 months is to make sure we deploy the gold leases that we're getting from Tether and making sure that we're using that liquidity to put it to good use and get a return in excess of what we're paying for the leases. So I mean, it's a great opportunity for us. It's cheaper liquidity than our dollar facilities. But I think it's going to take probably a couple of quarters for us to really see those benefits.

Operator

At this time, this concludes our question-and-answer session. I'd now like to turn the call back over to Mr. Roberts for any closing remarks.

Gregory Roberts

I'd like to thank all of our shareholders. We have many new ones and all of our old ones for joining the call today and for your continued interest and support. All of our employees, I thank them for all they do day in and day out. And we look forward to keeping you updated on our continued progress. Thank you all for joining today.

Operator

Thank you. Before we conclude today's call, I'd like to provide Gold.com's safe harbor statement that includes important cautions regarding forward-looking statements made during this call. During today's call, there were forward-looking statements made regarding future events. Statements that relate to Gold.com's future plans, objectives, expectations, performance, events and the like are forward-looking statements within the meanings of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These include statements regarding expectations with respect to future profitability and growth, internal expansion, operational enhancements and the amount or timing of any future dividends.

Future events, risks and uncertainties, individually or in the aggregate could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in these statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include the following: the failure to execute the company's growth strategy, including the inability to identify suitable or available acquisition or investment opportunities; greater-than-anticipated costs incurred during the execution of the strategy, our inability to execute on our cost containment and expense reduction programs, government regulations that might impede growth, particularly in Asia, including with respect to tariff policy; the inability to successfully integrate or recently acquired businesses; changes in the current international political climate, which historically has favorably contributed to the demand and volatility in the precious metals market, but has also posed certain risks and uncertainties for the company; increased competition for the company's higher-margin services, which could depress pricing; the failure of the company's business model to respond to changes in the market environment as anticipated; changes in consumer demand and preferences for precious metal products generally; potential negative effects that inflationary pressure may have on our business; the failure of our investee companies to maintain or address the preferences of their customer bases; general risks of doing business in the commodity markets; and the strategic business, economic, financial, political and governmental risks and other risk factors described in the company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.

Finally, I'd like to remind everyone that a recording of today's call will be available for the replay via a link on the Investors section of the company's website. Thank you for joining us today for Gold.com's earnings call. You may now disconnect.