Critical Survey: Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) and Athena Gold (OTCMKTS:AHNR)

Athena Gold (OTCMKTS:AHNR) and Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) are both basic materials companies, but which is the better business? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, valuation, risk and analyst recommendations.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Athena Gold and Royal Gold”s gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Athena Gold	N/A	N/A	-$640,000.00	N/A	N/A
Royal Gold	$719.40 million	26.43	$332.02 million	$7.28	30.95

Royal Gold has higher revenue and earnings than Athena Gold.

Analyst Recommendations

This is a summary of recent recommendations for Athena Gold and Royal Gold, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Athena Gold	0	0	0	0	0.00
Royal Gold	1	2	8	0	2.64

Royal Gold has a consensus target price of $234.60, indicating a potential upside of 4.12%. Given Royal Gold’s stronger consensus rating and higher probable upside, analysts clearly believe Royal Gold is more favorable than Athena Gold.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

35.9% of Athena Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 83.7% of Royal Gold shares are owned by institutional investors. 10.4% of Athena Gold shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.5% of Royal Gold shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, hedge funds and large money managers believe a company will outperform the market over the long term.

Profitability

This table compares Athena Gold and Royal Gold’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Athena Gold	N/A	20.27%	18.37%
Royal Gold	55.99%	14.14%	12.42%

Summary

Royal Gold beats Athena Gold on 8 of the 11 factors compared between the two stocks.

About Athena Gold

Athena Gold Corporation, an exploration stage company, engages in the acquisition and exploration of mineral resources in the United States. It explores for gold, molybdenum, and copper deposits. The company's flagship property is the Excelsior Springs project comprising 191 unpatented claims and 2 patented mining claims located in Walker Lane, Nevada. It also owns 100% interest in the Crow Springs project, which consists of eleven unpatented mining claims located in Esmeralda County, Nevada. Athena Gold Corporation was formerly known as Athena Silver Corporation and changed its name to Athena Gold Corporation in January 2021. The company was incorporated in 2003 and is based in Vacaville, California.

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. Its stream and royalty interests on properties are located in the United States, Canada, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Australia, Africa, Mexico, Botswana, and internationally. Royal Gold, Inc. was incorporated in 1981 and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.