Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) Stock Rating Upgraded by BMO Capital Markets

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) was upgraded by BMO Capital Markets from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report released on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a $158.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their prior target price of $148.00. BMO Capital Markets’ target price points to a potential upside of 29.71% from the stock’s previous close.

RGLD has been the topic of several other reports. National Bank Financial raised Royal Gold from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Royal Gold from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on Royal Gold in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $117.00 price target on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Royal Gold has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $145.67.

Royal Gold Price Performance

NASDAQ RGLD opened at $121.81 on Wednesday. Royal Gold has a fifty-two week low of $100.55 and a fifty-two week high of $147.82. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $111.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $112.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08, a current ratio of 2.31 and a quick ratio of 2.18. The firm has a market cap of $8.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.86.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.75 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $152.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.32 million. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 39.53%. The firm’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.91 earnings per share. On average, analysts anticipate that Royal Gold will post 4.17 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Royal Gold news, VP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, February 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $104.18, for a total transaction of $52,090.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 9,473 shares in the company, valued at $986,897.14. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in RGLD. US Bancorp DE lifted its stake in Royal Gold by 3.2% during the first quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 3,913 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $552,000 after purchasing an additional 123 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Royal Gold by 17.9% during the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 6,544 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $921,000 after purchasing an additional 993 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in Royal Gold during the first quarter worth about $251,000. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its stake in Royal Gold by 2.4% during the first quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,042 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $572,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the period. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can lifted its stake in Royal Gold by 9.2% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 35,641 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $5,174,000 after purchasing an additional 2,988 shares during the period. 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.