Birch Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Position in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Birch Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 29.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,038 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 239 shares during the period. Birch Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Royal Gold were worth $137,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its stake in Royal Gold by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 3,637,739 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $553,810,000 after acquiring an additional 39,394 shares in the last quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 0.6% in the second quarter. First Eagle Investment Management LLC now owns 3,584,967 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $448,694,000 after purchasing an additional 20,508 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Royal Gold by 2.6% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 1,321,555 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $185,454,000 after buying an additional 33,151 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake in Royal Gold by 24.0% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 806,872 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $100,991,000 after buying an additional 156,048 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 38.4% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 483,493 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $60,514,000 after acquiring an additional 134,120 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. StockNews.com upgraded Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. TD Securities lifted their price objective on Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Jefferies Financial Group raised shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $154.00 to $178.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Raymond James increased their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, November 11th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $168.86.

Royal Gold Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of Royal Gold stock traded up $1.82 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $134.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 180,819 shares, compared to its average volume of 328,566. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $142.90 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $139.61. Royal Gold, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $100.55 and a fifty-two week high of $155.10. The firm has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a PE ratio of 30.82, a P/E/G ratio of 1.08 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.13. The firm had revenue of $193.84 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $184.12 million. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 10.18% and a net margin of 42.93%. The business’s revenue was up 39.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.76 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 5.14 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This is a boost from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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