Empowered Funds LLC Acquires New Holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. $RGLD

Empowered Funds LLC acquired a new stake in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 4,664 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $931,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Axiom Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Royal Gold in the first quarter worth $25,000. Grove Bank & Trust boosted its position in shares of Royal Gold by 88.6% in the second quarter. Grove Bank & Trust now owns 132 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 62 shares during the period. Elyxium Wealth LLC bought a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the 4th quarter valued at about $27,000. Gen Wealth Partners Inc purchased a new position in shares of Royal Gold in the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, Scarborough Advisors LLC bought a new stake in Royal Gold in the first quarter worth $32,000. 83.65% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

RGLD has been the topic of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of Royal Gold from $280.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 4th. Zacks Research cut shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price target on Royal Gold from $318.00 to $311.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $310.00 to $305.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $285.10.

Royal Gold Price Performance

NASDAQ RGLD opened at $262.11 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a current ratio of 2.92 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $220.36 and its 200 day moving average price is $236.00. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 1 year low of $168.88 and a 1 year high of $306.25. The company has a market cap of $22.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.61, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 0.50.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $2.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.55 by $0.01. Royal Gold had a net margin of 47.74% and a return on equity of 12.06%. The company had revenue of $468.98 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $458.85 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.81 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 114.9% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 10.26 earnings per share for the current year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.475 per share. This represents a $1.90 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 2nd. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is 20.74%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Royal Gold news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.80, for a total value of $131,400.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 8,082 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,123,949.60. This trade represents a 5.83% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.35% of the company’s stock.

Royal Gold Company Profile

Royal Gold, Inc, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is a leading precious metals streaming and royalty company. Through its business model, Royal Gold provides upfront financing to mining operators in exchange for the right to purchase a percentage of future metal production at predetermined prices. This structure allows the company to participate in production upside while minimizing exposure to the operating and capital-intensive aspects of mine ownership.

The company’s portfolio encompasses interests in over 200 streams and royalties on projects across North America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia.