Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Plans $0.38 Quarterly Dividend

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD – Get Rating) (TSE:RGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, May 24th, Zacks reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 7th will be paid a dividend of 0.375 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, July 21st. This represents a $1.50 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 6th.

Royal Gold has increased its dividend by an average of 9.9% per year over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 21 years. Royal Gold has a dividend payout ratio of 35.7% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Royal Gold to earn $4.37 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.50 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.3%.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

Shares of RGLD stock opened at $123.83 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $133.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.44. The firm has a market cap of $8.12 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.30, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.65. Royal Gold has a 1 year low of $84.54 and a 1 year high of $147.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.18, a quick ratio of 3.23 and a current ratio of 3.44.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD – Get Rating) (TSE:RGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 3rd. The basic materials company reported $0.96 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.94 by $0.02. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 38.80%. The firm had revenue of $170.40 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $162.77 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.99 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 4.9% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Royal Gold will post 3.79 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Mark Isto sold 9,660 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.89, for a total transaction of $1,370,657.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 30,437 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,318,705.93. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Royal Gold news, COO Mark Isto sold 9,660 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $141.89, for a total value of $1,370,657.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief operating officer now directly owns 30,437 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,318,705.93. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, VP Daniel Breeze sold 2,095 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.92, for a total transaction of $297,322.40. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 11,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,672,669.12. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 13,895 shares of company stock worth $1,972,930 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Royal Gold

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the 4th quarter worth $239,552,000. State Street Corp increased its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 66.2% during the 1st quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,153,139 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $588,192,000 after buying an additional 1,654,360 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the 1st quarter worth $56,762,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 65.7% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 612,166 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $79,406,000 after buying an additional 242,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the 1st quarter worth $29,022,000. 78.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on RGLD shares. Barclays raised their price target on Royal Gold from $119.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, April 21st. Raymond James reduced their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $153.00 to $148.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 21st. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from C$155.00 to C$165.00 in a research report on Tuesday, April 18th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “b+” rating to a “c” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Royal Gold in a research report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “hold” rating for the company. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Royal Gold presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $141.63.

Royal Gold Company Profile

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Royal Gold, Inc engages in the acquisition and management of precious metal streams, royalties, and similar interests. It operates through the Acquisition and Management of Stream Interests, and Acquisition and Management of Royalty Interests segments. The Acquisition and Management of Stream Interests segment focuses on metal streams, which are purchase agreements that provide, in exchange for an upfront deposit payment, the right to purchase all or a portion of one or more metals produced, at a price determined for the life of the transaction.