Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.45 Per Share

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 19th,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, January 17th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.21%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This is an increase from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40.

Royal Gold has increased its dividend by an average of 10.2% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 24 years. Royal Gold has a payout ratio of 25.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Royal Gold to earn $6.35 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.60 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 25.2%.

Royal Gold Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ RGLD opened at $148.60 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $144.74 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $136.16. Royal Gold has a 1 year low of $100.55 and a 1 year high of $155.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.19 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.34 by $0.13. Royal Gold had a net margin of 42.93% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The business had revenue of $193.84 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $184.12 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. Royal Gold’s revenue was up 39.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that Royal Gold will post 5.13 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Royal Gold

In other Royal Gold news, CFO Paul Libner sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $142.53, for a total value of $213,795.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 18,657 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,659,182.21. This trade represents a 7.44 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,362,859.40. The trade was a 17.63 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,924 shares of company stock valued at $1,271,449 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.52% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on RGLD. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $141.00 to $154.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, October 4th. TD Securities increased their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, November 7th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 19th. Scotiabank upped their target price on Royal Gold from $148.00 to $157.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Raymond James lifted their price target on Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, November 11th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $165.43.

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.