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

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) has received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, three have given a hold recommendation and four have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $143.25.

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

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $56,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,127 shares in the company, valued at $1,370,351. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Royal Gold

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RGLD. Rakuten Securities Inc. acquired a new stake in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 526.3% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 238 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 200 shares during the last quarter. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. BKM Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in Royal Gold during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC raised its holdings in Royal Gold by 414.9% during the fourth quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 381 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 307 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ RGLD opened at $124.26 on Tuesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $115.35 and its 200 day simple moving average is $115.14. The stock has a market capitalization 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 quick ratio of 2.18, a current ratio of 2.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. Royal Gold has a 52-week low of $100.55 and a 52-week high of $147.82.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $152.70 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.32 million. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 39.53%. Royal Gold’s revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.91 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Royal Gold will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.96%.

About Royal Gold

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.