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

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Stockholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.10%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th.

Royal Gold has raised its dividend payment by an average of 9.7% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 25 years. Royal Gold has a payout ratio of 25.2% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ:RGLD opened at $164.26 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $149.64 and a 200 day simple moving average of $145.10. The stock has a market cap of $10.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.59, a PEG ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.84. Royal Gold has a 1-year low of $118.00 and a 1-year high of $164.96.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group raised 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 issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $168.86.

Insider Activity at Royal Gold

In other news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.98, for a total value of $201,474.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 9,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,450,612.80. This represents a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.