Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Position Lessened by Kovack Advisors Inc.

Kovack Advisors Inc. decreased its position in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 5.2% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 7,300 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 400 shares during the period. Kovack Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Royal Gold were worth $889,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings 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 valued at $988,149,000 after buying an additional 47,807 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in Royal Gold by 0.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,643,568 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $803,606,000 after acquiring an additional 22,921 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its stake in Royal Gold by 0.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,303,377 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $520,536,000 after acquiring an additional 22,701 shares during the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in Royal Gold by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 3,667,169 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $443,581,000 after acquiring an additional 37,885 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Kopernik Global Investors LLC grew its position in Royal Gold by 12.3% in the fourth quarter. Kopernik Global Investors LLC now owns 671,723 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $81,252,000 after acquiring an additional 73,642 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.73, for a total transaction of $196,095.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 14,840 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,940,033.20. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $129.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 26th. Scotiabank raised their target price on Royal Gold from $144.00 to $148.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Royal Gold from $160.00 to $161.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $142.25.

Royal Gold Stock Up 2.4 %

Royal Gold stock opened at $129.43 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.50 and a quick ratio of 2.35. Royal Gold, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $100.55 and a fifty-two week high of $134.56. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $126.06 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $119.50. The firm has a market cap of $8.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 38.18, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.87.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 8th. The basic materials company reported $0.91 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by ($0.04). Royal Gold had a return on equity of 7.96% and a net margin of 38.12%. The business had revenue of $148.90 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $147.02 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.96 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 12.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 4.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Royal Gold Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.24%. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.20%.

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.