Swiss National Bank Reduces Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Swiss National Bank reduced its position in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 0.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 128,400 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 900 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank owned approximately 0.20% of Royal Gold worth $18,015,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in shares of Royal Gold in the 3rd quarter worth about $49,000. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in Royal Gold by 108.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $57,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares during the period. Mather Group LLC. bought a new position in Royal Gold in the second quarter worth about $62,000. 1832 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in Royal Gold in the second quarter valued at approximately $65,000. Finally, International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the second quarter valued at approximately $75,000. 83.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. TD Securities boosted their price objective on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $148.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 19th. StockNews.com raised shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, September 19th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Royal Gold from $141.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, October 4th. Finally, Raymond James raised their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $165.43.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

RGLD stock opened at $148.46 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $144.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $136.16. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.55 and a 52 week high of $155.10. The stock has a market cap of $9.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.95, a P/E/G ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $193.84 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $184.12 million. Royal Gold had a net margin of 42.93% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The company’s revenue was up 39.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is currently 36.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Gold

In other Royal Gold news, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.05, for a total transaction of $291,747.20. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,268 shares in the company, valued at $1,362,859.40. The trade was a 17.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 840 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $143.43, for a total value of $120,481.20. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,842 shares in the company, valued at $2,415,648.06. The trade was a 4.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 8,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,271,449 in the last 90 days. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.