Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Raised to Buy at Jefferies Financial Group

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) was upgraded by stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Tuesday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a $178.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $154.00. Jefferies Financial Group’s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 30.64% from the stock’s current price.

RGLD has been the topic of several other research reports. Raymond James lifted their target price on Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, TD Securities lifted their target price on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $168.86.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RGLD opened at $136.25 on Tuesday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $142.50 and a 200 day simple moving average of $139.68. Royal Gold has a 52 week low of $100.55 and a 52 week high of $155.10. The company has a market cap of $8.96 billion, a PE ratio of 31.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released 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 company had revenue of $193.84 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $184.12 million. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 42.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.76 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Royal Gold will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $147.05, for a total value of $291,747.20. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,362,859.40. This trade represents a 17.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 549 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $82,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 16,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,443,950. This trade represents a 3.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Royal Gold

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Royal Gold by 24.0% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 806,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $100,991,000 after buying an additional 156,048 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its position in Royal Gold by 38.4% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 483,493 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $60,514,000 after buying an additional 134,120 shares during the period. Driehaus Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the second quarter worth approximately $15,559,000. International Assets Investment Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 13,968.8% in the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 84,694 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,883,000 after acquiring an additional 84,092 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Montreal Can increased its position in Royal Gold by 187.5% during the third quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 127,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $18,049,000 after acquiring an additional 83,015 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Royal Gold Company Profile

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.