Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Upgraded to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

RGLD has been the topic of several other reports. Cibc World Mkts raised Royal Gold to a hold rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. Bank of America increased their price objective on Royal Gold from $129.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Wednesday, June 26th. CIBC increased their price objective on Royal Gold from $166.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. Raymond James raised their target price on Royal Gold from $167.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an outperformer rating in a report on Friday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Royal Gold from $168.00 to $170.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, July 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $155.71.

Royal Gold Stock Up 1.3 %

RGLD stock traded up $1.63 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $129.56. The stock had a trading volume of 293,965 shares, compared to its average volume of 303,452. The company has a current ratio of 2.50, a quick ratio of 2.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Royal Gold has a 1-year low of $100.55 and a 1-year high of $141.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $130.00 and a 200 day moving average of $122.10. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.52 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.22, a PEG ratio of 1.04 and a beta of 0.87.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The basic materials company reported $1.25 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.18 by $0.07. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 7.96% and a net margin of 38.12%. The company had revenue of $174.10 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $172.12 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.88 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 20.9% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Royal Gold will post 4.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, July 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were given a $0.40 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.23%. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.20%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Royal Gold news, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.73, for a total value of $196,095.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 14,840 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,940,033.20. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Royal Gold

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 8,169,223 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $988,149,000 after buying an additional 47,807 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 0.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,664,975 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $811,861,000 after buying an additional 21,407 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,595,734 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $559,807,000 after buying an additional 292,357 shares during the period. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its position 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 period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 34.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 834,986 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $104,507,000 after buying an additional 212,316 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

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.