Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. Buys New Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm purchased 1,417 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $187,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RGLD. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the 4th quarter valued at $44,009,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Royal Gold by 181.6% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 302,206 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $39,846,000 after purchasing an additional 194,905 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter valued at about $18,427,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Royal Gold during the fourth quarter worth about $11,998,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,651,935 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $877,058,000 after buying an additional 89,298 shares in the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Jefferies Financial Group raised Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $154.00 to $178.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Royal Gold presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $168.86.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

NASDAQ:RGLD opened at $164.56 on Thursday. Royal Gold, Inc. has a one year low of $118.00 and a one year high of $164.96. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $150.16 and its 200 day simple moving average is $145.23. The stock has a market cap of $10.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.84.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 12th. The basic materials company reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.46 by $0.17. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 11.46% and a net margin of 46.15%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 6.2 EPS for the current year.

Royal Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, April 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.09%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is currently 35.71%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.98, for a total value of $201,474.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,360 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,450,612.80. The trade was a 12.20 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.52% 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.