Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the eight analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and four have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $143.25.

RGLD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. National Bank Financial raised shares of Royal Gold from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Royal Gold in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. They set a “hold” rating and a $117.00 price target on the stock. BMO Capital Markets raised Royal Gold from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $148.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Royal Gold from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th.

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Gold

In related news, VP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $104.18, for a total transaction of $52,090.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 9,473 shares in the company, valued at approximately $986,897.14. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Royal Gold

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RGLD. Capital World Investors boosted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 0.6% in the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 8,169,223 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $988,149,000 after acquiring an additional 47,807 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 0.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,643,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $803,606,000 after purchasing an additional 22,921 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,303,377 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $520,536,000 after buying an additional 22,701 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 3,667,169 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $443,581,000 after buying an additional 37,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its position in shares of Royal Gold by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 699,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $74,339,000 after buying an additional 3,541 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Royal Gold Trading Down 0.3 %

NASDAQ RGLD opened at $124.26 on Tuesday. Royal Gold has a one year low of $100.55 and a one year high of $147.82. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $115.35 and a 200-day simple moving average of $115.14. The firm has a market cap of $8.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.14, a PEG ratio of 7.13 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a current ratio of 2.31.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.20. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 39.53%. The business had revenue of $152.70 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $140.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.91 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that Royal Gold will post 4.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.29%. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.96%.

Royal Gold Company Profile

Royal Gold, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, acquires and manages precious metal streams, royalties, and related interests. The company engages in acquiring stream and royalty interests or to finance projects that are in production, development, or in the exploration stage in exchange for stream or royalty interests, which primarily consists of gold, silver, copper, nickel, zinc, lead, and other metals.