Vest Financial LLC Makes New Investment in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Vest Financial LLC bought a new position in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD - Free Report) TSE: RGL in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 5,653 shares of the basic materials company's stock, valued at approximately $924,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Veracity Capital LLC raised its position in Royal Gold by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Veracity Capital LLC now owns 1,750 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $286,000 after buying an additional 165 shares during the last quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its position in Royal Gold by 201.2% in the 1st quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 10,388 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,699,000 after buying an additional 6,939 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its position in Royal Gold by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 189,078 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $30,916,000 after buying an additional 10,049 shares during the last quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC raised its position in Royal Gold by 5.2% in the 1st quarter. GoalVest Advisory LLC now owns 1,505 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $246,000 after buying an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC raised its position in Royal Gold by 17,722.4% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 457,501 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $74,806,000 after buying an additional 454,934 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% of the company's stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Royal Gold news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.98, for a total value of $201,474.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 9,360 shares in the company, valued at $1,450,612.80. This represents a 12.20% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Royal Gold Trading Down 4.3%

Royal Gold stock opened at $175.93 on Monday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $176.42 and a 200 day moving average of $156.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.91, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.44. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 12-month low of $119.72 and a 12-month high of $191.78.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL last released its 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. The company had revenue of $193.44 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $176.17 million. Royal Gold had a net margin of 46.15% and a return on equity of 11.46%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.91 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 6.2 EPS for the current year.

Royal Gold Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. Royal Gold's dividend payout ratio is 29.80%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RGLD has been the subject of several research reports. Scotiabank raised shares of Royal Gold from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and upped their price target 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 target on shares of Royal Gold and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. 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. Raymond James upped their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, CIBC upped their price target 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. 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Royal Gold presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $183.13.

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.

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