River Road Asset Management LLC Purchases 8,550 Shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

River Road Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD - Free Report) TSE: RGL by 19.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 52,578 shares of the basic materials company's stock after buying an additional 8,550 shares during the quarter. River Road Asset Management LLC owned about 0.08% of Royal Gold worth $6,360,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of RGLD. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in Royal Gold by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,280,676 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $455,165,000 after acquiring an additional 54,449 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its stake in Royal Gold by 66.2% during the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,153,139 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $588,192,000 after buying an additional 1,654,360 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Royal Gold in the 4th quarter valued at about $239,552,000. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of Royal Gold by 3.4% in the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 975,099 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $126,480,000 after buying an additional 31,632 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 699,138 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $74,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,541 shares during the period. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Gold

In other news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $56,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,127 shares in the company, valued at $1,370,351. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on RGLD shares. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on Royal Gold in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. They set a "hold" rating and a $117.00 target price for the company. National Bank Financial raised Royal Gold from a "sector perform" rating to an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 15th. BMO Capital Markets upgraded Royal Gold from a "market perform" rating to an "outperform" rating and lifted their target price for the company from $148.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. Finally, Cantor Fitzgerald cut shares of Royal Gold from an "overweight" rating to a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, February 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Royal Gold presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $145.67.

Royal Gold Trading Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ RGLD traded down $1.34 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $121.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 465,303 shares, compared to its average volume of 431,754. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $113.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $114.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 2.18. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.55 and a 52 week high of $147.82. The stock has a market cap of $8.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.42, a P/E/G ratio of 6.20 and a beta of 0.87.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.20. Royal Gold had a net margin of 39.53% and a return on equity of 8.18%. The firm had revenue of $152.70 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.32 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.91 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 6.3% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 4.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 19th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.32%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. Royal Gold's payout ratio is presently 43.96%.

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.