Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 4.3% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 9,986 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 416 shares during the period. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC’s holdings in Royal Gold were worth $1,317,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in RGLD. Canoe Financial LP bought a new stake in Royal Gold during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,299,000. Merit Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the fourth quarter worth about $455,000. BFI Infinity Ltd. bought a new stake in Royal Gold during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $311,000. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new position in Royal Gold in the 4th quarter worth approximately $302,000. Finally, Laurel Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Royal Gold during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $105,000. 83.65% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Royal Gold Trading Up 0.2 %

RGLD opened at $138.54 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $140.74 and a 200 day moving average of $140.21. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 12 month low of $100.55 and a 12 month high of $155.10. The firm has a market cap of $9.11 billion, a P/E ratio of 31.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $193.84 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $184.12 million. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 42.93%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 39.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.76 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, January 17th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.30%. This is an increase from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on RGLD. Raymond James boosted their target price on shares of Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $154.00 to $178.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, TD Securities raised their price objective on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $168.86.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 549 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $82,350.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,293 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,443,950. This trade represents a 3.26 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.05, for a total transaction of $291,747.20. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 9,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,362,859.40. This represents a 17.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.