AQR Capital Management LLC Grows Stock Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. $RGLD

Key Points

• AQR Capital Management increased its stake in Royal Gold, Inc. by 68.8%, owning 1,682,911 shares worth approximately $274.89 million as of the latest SEC filing.
• Recent analyses have generally been positive for Royal Gold, with multiple firms upgrading their ratings, leading to an average price target of $198.63 for the stock.
• Royal Gold reported a strong quarterly earnings performance, with $1.81 EPS, exceeding expectations, and maintaining a 56.24% net margin.

AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD - Free Report) TSE: RGL by 68.8% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 1,682,911 shares of the basic materials company's stock after purchasing an additional 685,857 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC owned about 2.56% of Royal Gold worth $274,887,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Comerica Bank boosted its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 12.6% in the fourth quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 23,673 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,121,000 after buying an additional 2,640 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV raised its stake in Royal Gold by 173.2% during the 4th quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,002 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $528,000 after acquiring an additional 2,537 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC raised its stake in Royal Gold by 28.7% during the 4th quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 26,774 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,530,000 after acquiring an additional 5,964 shares during the period. BNP Paribas Financial Markets raised its stake in Royal Gold by 80.4% during the 4th quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 27,759 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,659,000 after acquiring an additional 12,368 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of Royal Gold by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 89,322 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $11,777,000 after buying an additional 1,069 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of Royal Gold from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. BMO Capital Markets set a $197.00 price target on shares of Royal Gold and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 30th. Canaccord Genuity Group boosted their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $202.00 to $203.00 in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, TD Securities reiterated a "buy" rating and set a $237.00 price objective (up previously from $229.00) on shares of Royal Gold in a research report on Friday, August 8th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $198.63.

Royal Gold Trading Up 0.4%

Shares of RGLD traded up $0.66 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $185.52. 321,597 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 634,383. The firm has a market cap of $12.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.20, a PEG ratio of 1.35 and a beta of 0.43. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 12-month low of $130.67 and a 12-month high of $191.78. The stock's fifty day moving average price is $167.09 and its 200 day moving average price is $169.00.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.11. Royal Gold had a net margin of 56.24% and a return on equity of 13.30%. The firm had revenue of $209.64 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $186.63 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.25 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 20.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 6.2 earnings per share for the current year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 17th. Investors of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Royal Gold's dividend payout ratio is 26.39%.

Royal Gold 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.