California State Teachers Retirement System Acquires 19,567,393 Shares of Royal Gold, Inc. $RGLD

California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its stake in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 19,848.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 19,665,976 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 19,567,393 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.23% of Royal Gold worth $3,925,525,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the 2nd quarter valued at $2,177,865,000. Capital International Investors acquired a new stake in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter worth $332,026,000. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in Royal Gold by 18.1% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 5,900,432 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,311,607,000 after purchasing an additional 905,488 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in Royal Gold by 89.1% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,855,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $412,543,000 after purchasing an additional 874,329 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 457.5% during the fourth quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 925,906 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $205,820,000 after purchasing an additional 759,810 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

RGLD has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. TD increased their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $289.00 to $315.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and issued a $310.00 target price on shares of Royal Gold in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings lowered Royal Gold from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. UBS Group upped their price target on Royal Gold from $280.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on Royal Gold from $310.00 to $305.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $287.82.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

NASDAQ RGLD opened at $253.98 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $21.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.73, a PEG ratio of 1.98 and a beta of 0.50. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $225.06 and a 200 day simple moving average of $235.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.92, a quick ratio of 2.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 12-month low of $168.88 and a 12-month high of $306.25.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $2.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.55 by $0.01. Royal Gold had a net margin of 47.74% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The firm had revenue of $468.98 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $458.85 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.81 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 114.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 10.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 2nd will be given a dividend of $0.475 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 2nd. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is presently 20.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Gold

In related news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.80, for a total value of $131,400.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president owned 8,082 shares in the company, valued at $2,123,949.60. This represents a 5.83% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.35% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Royal Gold Company Profile

Royal Gold, Inc is a precious metals streaming and royalty company headquartered in Denver, Colorado. Rather than operating mines directly, the company provides financing to mining companies in exchange for the right to purchase a portion of the metals produced from certain projects at predetermined prices, or to receive revenue-based payments tied to mineral production.

Royal Gold’s portfolio is organized into two primary businesses: streams and royalties. Its streaming agreements generally provide rights to purchase gold, silver, copper or other metals from mining operations, while its royalty interests entitle the company to a percentage of revenue or production from a mine without bearing the operator’s ongoing costs.