Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Raised to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD - Get Free Report) TSE: RGL was upgraded by stock analysts at Wall Street Zen from a "buy" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a report released on Saturday.

RGLD has been the subject of several other research reports. Raymond James upped their price objective on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $200.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, April 4th. BMO Capital Markets set a $197.00 price objective on Royal Gold and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 22nd. Scotiabank raised Royal Gold from a "sector perform" rating to a "sector outperform" rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $166.00 to $189.00 in a research report on Monday, April 14th. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on Royal Gold from $175.00 to $170.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 4th. Finally, CIBC boosted their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $202.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Royal Gold currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $183.13.

Royal Gold Trading Down 1.1%

Shares of RGLD traded down $1.91 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $178.68. The company's stock had a trading volume of 323,458 shares, compared to its average volume of 418,241. Royal Gold has a 1-year low of $119.72 and a 1-year high of $191.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 35.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $172.62 and a 200 day simple moving average of $153.77.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Royal Gold news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 1,300 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, March 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.98, for a total value 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 8,773,925 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $1,156,842,000 after acquiring an additional 37,648 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 0.7% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 6,698,891 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $1,095,336,000 after buying an additional 46,956 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Royal Gold by 68.8% during the 1st 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 during the period. Findlay Park Partners LLP increased its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 1.4% during the first quarter. Findlay Park Partners LLP now owns 1,241,030 shares of the basic materials company's stock valued at $202,921,000 after buying an additional 16,600 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Royal Gold by 19.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,029,431 shares of the basic materials company's stock worth $135,730,000 after purchasing an additional 168,569 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 83.65% 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.