Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Trading Down 3.4% - Should You Sell?

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL's share price traded down 3.4% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $178.50 and last traded at $177.59. 117,865 shares traded hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 72% from the average session volume of 421,528 shares. The stock had previously closed at $183.85.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price objective on Royal Gold from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, April 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Royal Gold from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Scotiabank raised Royal Gold from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $166.00 to $189.00 in a research note on Monday, April 14th. BMO Capital Markets set a $197.00 price objective on Royal Gold and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 22nd. Finally, Raymond James boosted their price objective on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, Royal Gold presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $183.13.

Royal Gold Price Performance

The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $176.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $156.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.44.

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

Royal Gold Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, July 17th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.02%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 3rd. Royal Gold's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.80%.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction 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 approximately $1,450,612.80. The trade was 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 the SEC website. 0.49% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Royal Gold

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in RGLD. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Royal Gold by 68.8% in the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,682,911 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $274,887,000 after purchasing an additional 685,857 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of Royal Gold by 17,722.4% in the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 457,501 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $74,806,000 after purchasing an additional 454,934 shares in the last quarter. Select Equity Group L.P. purchased a new position in shares of Royal Gold in the fourth quarter valued at $55,825,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Royal Gold in the fourth quarter valued at $44,009,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Royal Gold in the first quarter worth $40,882,000. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.