Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Makes New $570,000 Investment in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD - Free Report) TSE: RGL in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor purchased 4,325 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $570,000.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of RGLD. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in Royal Gold by 129.4% during the fourth quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,229 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,612,000 after acquiring an additional 6,899 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC bought a new stake in Royal Gold during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in Royal Gold by 40.3% during the fourth quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 574 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $81,000 after acquiring an additional 165 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in Royal Gold by 1,904.4% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 33,874 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $4,466,000 after acquiring an additional 32,184 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Royal Gold by 9.5% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 41,999 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $5,538,000 after acquiring an additional 3,634 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Royal Gold Trading Up 4.8%

NASDAQ:RGLD traded up $8.49 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $186.61. The company's stock had a trading volume of 376,388 shares, compared to its average volume of 420,332. 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 $12.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.03, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.48. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $174.31 and a 200-day moving average of $154.82.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $1.51 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $193.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.17 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. Royal Gold's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.80%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on RGLD. CIBC upped their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $202.00 to $215.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Royal Gold from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Saturday, May 24th. Scotiabank raised shares of Royal Gold from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $189.00 in a research report on Monday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets set a $197.00 price objective on shares of Royal Gold and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, April 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $183.13.

Insider Buying and Selling

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

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.