Crawford Fund Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Crawford Fund Management LLC grew its holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 9.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 47,327 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,200 shares during the period. Royal Gold makes up about 1.4% of Crawford Fund Management LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Crawford Fund Management LLC owned about 0.07% of Royal Gold worth $6,640,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Advisors Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Royal Gold in the third quarter valued at approximately $38,000. Compagnie Lombard Odier SCmA purchased a new position in Royal Gold during the third quarter valued at approximately $49,000. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its stake in Royal Gold by 51.7% during the third quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 361 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 123 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its stake in Royal Gold by 108.7% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 409 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 213 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Mather Group LLC. purchased a new position in Royal Gold during the second quarter valued at approximately $62,000. Institutional investors own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

RGLD has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. TD Securities boosted their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $181.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. Raymond James boosted their price objective on shares of Royal Gold from $184.00 to $186.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, November 11th. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $141.00 to $154.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, October 4th. StockNews.com raised shares of Royal Gold from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 19th. Finally, Scotiabank boosted their price target on shares of Royal Gold from $148.00 to $157.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $165.43.

Royal Gold Stock Down 0.4 %

NASDAQ:RGLD opened at $145.67 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $145.34 and a 200 day moving average of $136.93. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.55 and a 52 week high of $155.10. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.58 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.41, a P/E/G ratio of 1.07 and a beta of 0.90.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported $1.47 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by $0.13. Royal Gold had a net margin of 42.93% and a return on equity of 10.18%. The company had revenue of $193.84 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $184.12 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.76 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 39.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 5.14 EPS for the current year.

Royal Gold Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 17th. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This is a positive change from Royal Gold’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.40. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. Royal Gold’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.70%.

Insider Activity at Royal Gold

In other Royal Gold news, Director William M. Hayes sold 1,984 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $147.05, for a total value of $291,747.20. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,268 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,362,859.40. This represents a 17.63 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, SVP Daniel Breeze sold 840 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $143.43, for a total transaction of $120,481.20. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 16,842 shares in the company, valued at $2,415,648.06. This represents a 4.75 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Royal Gold Profile

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.