Bank of America Corp DE Has $12.85 Million Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Bank of America Corp DE reduced its position in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD - Free Report) TSE: RGL by 83.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 97,467 shares of the basic materials company's stock after selling 502,805 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE owned 0.15% of Royal Gold worth $12,851,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in RGLD. BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments purchased a new position in Royal Gold in the fourth quarter worth approximately $27,536,000. BNP Paribas Financial Markets grew its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 80.4% during the fourth quarter. BNP Paribas Financial Markets now owns 27,759 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,659,000 after purchasing an additional 12,368 shares during the last quarter. Algert Global LLC grew its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 28.7% during the fourth quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 26,774 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $3,530,000 after purchasing an additional 5,964 shares during the last quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV grew its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 173.2% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 4,002 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $528,000 after buying an additional 2,537 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its position in Royal Gold by 1,837.1% during the 4th quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec now owns 45,676 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $6,022,000 after purchasing an additional 43,318 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on RGLD shares. CIBC upped their target price on Royal Gold from $202.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Scotiabank upgraded Royal Gold from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $166.00 to $189.00 in a report on Monday, April 14th. Raymond James increased their price target on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded Royal Gold from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $183.13.

Royal Gold Trading Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:RGLD traded up $1.23 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $179.91. The company's stock had a trading volume of 34,658 shares, compared to its average volume of 416,779. Royal Gold, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $119.72 and a fifty-two week high of $191.78. The company has a market capitalization of $11.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $173.09 and a 200-day moving average of $153.94.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $1.51 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.37 by $0.14. Royal Gold had a net margin of 46.15% and a return on equity of 11.46%. The company had revenue of $193.44 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $176.17 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.91 EPS. Royal Gold's revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 6.2 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.00%. Royal Gold's dividend payout ratio is 29.80%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.98, for a total transaction of $201,474.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,360 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,450,612.80. This trade represents a 12.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.49% 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.