Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Buys 6,899 Shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC grew its stake in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 129.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 12,229 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,899 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in Royal Gold were worth $1,612,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Gold

In related 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,362,859.40. The trade was a 17.63 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 549 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total value of $82,350.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,293 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,443,950. This represents a 3.26 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on RGLD. Raymond James upped their target price on Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. TD Securities upped their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $154.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Royal Gold currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $168.86.

Royal Gold Stock Performance

RGLD opened at $140.88 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $9.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.31, a PEG ratio of 0.84 and a beta of 0.90. Royal Gold, Inc. has a one year low of $100.55 and a one year high of $155.10. The business’s fifty day moving average is $139.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $140.63.

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 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 39.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.76 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a $0.45 dividend. This is a positive change from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.28%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.28%.

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.