Uncommon Cents Investing LLC Has $1.39 Million Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Uncommon Cents Investing LLC reduced its holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 11,470 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 200 shares during the quarter. Uncommon Cents Investing LLC’s holdings in Royal Gold were worth $1,387,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in Royal Gold during the 4th quarter worth about $239,552,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 66.2% during the first 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 in the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the first quarter worth about $56,762,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its position in Royal Gold by 65.7% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 612,166 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $79,406,000 after buying an additional 242,641 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Balyasny Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in Royal Gold in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $29,022,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Royal Gold in a report on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $117.00 price objective on the stock. BMO Capital Markets upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $148.00 to $158.00 in a research note on Wednesday. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Royal Gold from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.67.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $56,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,370,351. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Royal Gold Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:RGLD opened at $121.81 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a current ratio of 2.31. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $111.25 and a 200 day simple moving average of $112.90. The company has a market capitalization of $8.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.42 and a beta of 0.86. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 52-week low of $100.55 and a 52-week high of $147.82.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.20. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 39.53%. The business had revenue of $152.70 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $140.32 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.91 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 4.17 earnings per share for the current year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 4th. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is 43.96%.

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.