Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) gapped down before the market opened on Monday . The stock had previously closed at $148.99, but opened at $145.04. Royal Gold shares last traded at $146.33, with a volume of 5,929 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Royal Gold Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $145.08 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $136.73. The company has a market cap of $9.62 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.16 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $193.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $184.12 million. Royal Gold had a net margin of 42.93% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 39.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.76 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.23%. This is a positive change from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.70%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.05, for a total transaction of $291,747.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,268 shares in the company, valued at $1,362,859.40. This trade represents a 17.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Paul Libner sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $142.53, for a total transaction of $213,795.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 18,657 shares in the company, valued at $2,659,182.21. This represents a 7.44 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,324 shares of company stock worth $626,023 over the last quarter. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd purchased a new stake in Royal Gold in the 3rd quarter valued at $36,000. Advisors Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Royal Gold in the 3rd quarter worth $38,000. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 61.1% in the third quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 290 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $41,000 after purchasing an additional 110 shares during the last quarter. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA bought a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the third quarter valued at about $49,000. Finally, Larson Financial Group LLC boosted its holdings in Royal Gold by 51.7% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

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.