Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Upgraded at Jefferies Financial Group

Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday, Marketbeat reports. The brokerage currently has $178.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $154.00.

A number of other research firms have also recently weighed in on RGLD. Raymond James lifted their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. TD Securities lifted their price target on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $168.86.

Royal Gold Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of RGLD stock opened at $136.25 on Tuesday. Royal Gold has a 52-week low of $100.55 and a 52-week high of $155.10. The stock has a market cap of $8.96 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.90. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $142.20 and a 200-day simple moving average of $139.65.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.13. The company had revenue of $193.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $184.12 million. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 42.93%. Royal Gold’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Royal Gold will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This is an increase from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Royal Gold news, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.05, for a total value of $291,747.20. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,362,859.40. This trade represents a 17.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 549 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $82,350.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,443,950. The trade was a 3.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Royal Gold

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in Royal Gold by 24.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 806,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $100,991,000 after acquiring an additional 156,048 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Royal Gold by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 483,493 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $60,514,000 after buying an additional 134,120 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Royal Gold in the second quarter valued at about $15,559,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in Royal Gold by 13,968.8% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 84,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $11,883,000 after buying an additional 84,092 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in shares of Royal Gold by 187.5% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 127,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $18,049,000 after acquiring an additional 83,015 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

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.