Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Increases Dividend to $0.45 Per Share

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.22%. This is a boost from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Royal Gold has raised its dividend by an average of 10.2% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend annually for the last 24 consecutive years. Royal Gold has a payout ratio of 25.0% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Royal Gold to earn $6.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.2%.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:RGLD traded up $1.60 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $147.89. The stock had a trading volume of 490,772 shares, compared to its average volume of 369,857. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $144.03 and its 200 day moving average is $135.72. Royal Gold has a 52 week low of $100.55 and a 52 week high of $155.10. The stock has a market cap of $9.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.71, a P/E/G ratio of 1.12 and a beta of 0.90.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

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

Insider Activity at Royal Gold

In other Royal Gold news, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of Royal Gold 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 $1,362,859.40. The trade was a 17.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 840 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.43, for a total value of $120,481.20. Following the completion of 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. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 9,339 shares of company stock worth $1,329,902. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.