Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Trading 3.6% Higher – Time to Buy?

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL)’s share price shot up 3.6% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as high as $171.17 and last traded at $170.50. 93,028 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 81% from the average session volume of 495,349 shares. The stock had previously closed at $164.54.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, April 4th. Raymond James raised their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $154.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $170.75.

Royal Gold Stock Up 5.0 %

The company’s fifty day moving average price is $154.43 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $146.51. The company has a market cap of $11.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.77.

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

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is 35.71%.

Insider Activity at Royal Gold

In other news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.98, for a total transaction of $201,474.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,450,612.80. This represents a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Royal Gold

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RGLD. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Royal Gold by 17,722.4% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 457,501 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $74,806,000 after buying an additional 454,934 shares during the period. Select Equity Group L.P. bought a new position in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $55,825,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Royal Gold during the 4th quarter worth $44,009,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the 4th quarter valued at $27,536,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 181.6% in the 4th quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 302,206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,846,000 after purchasing an additional 194,905 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.