Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Upgraded at Scotiabank

Scotiabank upgraded shares of Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) from a sector perform rating to a sector outperform rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has $189.00 price target on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior price target of $166.00.

Several other analysts have also issued reports on RGLD. Royal Bank of Canada cut their target price on Royal Gold from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $154.00 to $178.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $178.00.

Royal Gold Price Performance

RGLD stock opened at $186.45 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.81 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $147.34. The stock has a market cap of $12.27 billion, a PE ratio of 36.99, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.77. Royal Gold has a one year low of $118.00 and a one year high of $191.22.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.63 EPS 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%. On average, research analysts expect that Royal Gold will post 6.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued 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 yield of 0.97%. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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 transaction of $201,474.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,360 shares in the company, 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 document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Royal Gold by 17,722.4% in 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 last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. bought a new stake in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter valued at $55,825,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Royal Gold during the 4th quarter valued at $44,009,000. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new position in Royal Gold in the 4th quarter worth $27,536,000. Finally, Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its position 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 worth $39,846,000 after purchasing an additional 194,905 shares during the period. 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.