Legal & General Group Plc Acquires 57,843 Shares of Franco-Nevada Corporation $FNV

Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Franco-Nevada Corporation (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) by 5.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,044,515 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,843 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc’s holdings in Franco-Nevada were worth $216,797,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. increased its position in Franco-Nevada by 8.1% during the third quarter. TD Waterhouse Canada Inc. now owns 275,747 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $59,623,000 after acquiring an additional 20,664 shares during the period. Gruss & Co. LLC bought a new position in Franco-Nevada during the third quarter worth about $557,000. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in Franco-Nevada by 0.9% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,030,684 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $452,095,000 after acquiring an additional 18,897 shares during the period. Addenda Capital Inc. increased its position in Franco-Nevada by 88.1% during the fourth quarter. Addenda Capital Inc. now owns 203,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $42,211,000 after acquiring an additional 95,405 shares during the period. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in Franco-Nevada by 76.0% during the third quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 2,363,324 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $525,925,000 after acquiring an additional 1,020,509 shares during the period. 77.06% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on FNV shares. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Franco-Nevada from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 20th. National Bank Financial upgraded shares of Franco-Nevada from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Franco-Nevada from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Sunday. Canaccord Genuity Group upgraded shares of Franco-Nevada from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, UBS Group reiterated a “buy” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on shares of Franco-Nevada in a research note on Friday, January 30th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Franco-Nevada presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $271.00.

Franco-Nevada Trading Down 2.5%

FNV opened at $223.44 on Thursday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $240.52 and its 200-day moving average is $233.89. Franco-Nevada Corporation has a 1-year low of $152.89 and a 1-year high of $285.67. The company has a market cap of $43.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.47, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 0.34.

Franco-Nevada (NYSE:FNV) (TSE:FNV) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 12th. The basic materials company reported $2.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.09 by $0.29. Franco-Nevada had a net margin of 65.12% and a return on equity of 18.10%. The company had revenue of $650.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $634.43 million. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.07 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 76.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts forecast that Franco-Nevada Corporation will post 8.85 EPS for the current year.

Franco-Nevada Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, June 25th. Investors of record on Thursday, June 11th will be issued a $0.44 dividend. This represents a $1.76 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, June 11th. Franco-Nevada’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.79%.

Franco-Nevada Profile

Franco-Nevada Corporation is a Toronto-based royalty and streaming company that specializes in securing and managing long-term interests in mining properties. The firm focuses primarily on precious metals, particularly gold, while also holding interests related to silver, copper, platinum-group metals and select base metals. Rather than operating mines directly, Franco-Nevada acquires royalty and streaming agreements that entitle it to a percentage of production or revenue from producing and developing assets in exchange for upfront or staged financing.

The company’s business model centers on providing capital to mining companies in return for a sustained share of production or metal revenue, which can reduce exposure to operating and capital cost risks typical of mine operators.