Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Declares $0.45 Quarterly Dividend

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, April 17th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%.

Royal Gold has increased its dividend by an average of 9.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 24 years. Royal Gold has a dividend payout ratio of 25.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Royal Gold to earn $6.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 26.1%.

Royal Gold Price Performance

Shares of RGLD stock traded down $5.38 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $145.04. 349,335 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 371,417. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $140.07 and a 200 day moving average price of $142.20. The company has a market cap of $9.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.78, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.90. Royal Gold has a 12-month low of $100.55 and a 12-month high of $155.64.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.17. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 11.46% and a net margin of 46.15%. Sell-side analysts predict that Royal Gold will post 6.2 EPS for the current year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on RGLD shares. TD Securities upped their price objective on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James upped their target price on Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $154.00 to $178.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Royal Gold presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $168.86.

Insider Activity at Royal Gold

In other news, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 549 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $82,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,950. This represents a 3.26 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.