Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.48

Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 2nd will be given a dividend of 0.475 per share by the basic materials company on Thursday, April 16th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 2nd.

Royal Gold has raised its dividend by an average of 0.1%per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 25 consecutive years. Royal Gold has a payout ratio of 23.6% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Royal Gold to earn $6.89 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.90 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.6%.

Royal Gold Price Performance

RGLD traded up $2.10 during trading on Friday, reaching $296.48. The stock had a trading volume of 301,226 shares, compared to its average volume of 967,968. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $262.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $214.82. The company has a quick ratio of 2.91, a current ratio of 3.12 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.12. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.90 and a beta of 0.49. Royal Gold has a 1-year low of $142.95 and a 1-year high of $306.25.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.68 by ($0.76). Royal Gold had a return on equity of 11.89% and a net margin of 45.26%.The firm had revenue of $360.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $425.47 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 85.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Royal Gold will post 6.2 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Royal Gold news, Director William M. Hayes sold 4,173 shares of Royal Gold stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.07, for a total transaction of $1,156,213.11. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,129 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,698,162.03. The trade was a 40.51% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.49% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Royal Gold

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 104.1% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,994,944 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,001,885,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547,076 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in Royal Gold by 25.0% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 8,398,944 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,867,001,000 after buying an additional 1,681,577 shares during the last quarter. Capital International Investors acquired a new stake in shares of Royal Gold during the fourth quarter worth approximately $332,026,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its stake in shares of Royal Gold by 89.1% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,855,877 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $412,543,000 after acquiring an additional 874,329 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 457.5% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen LLC now owns 925,906 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $205,820,000 after acquiring an additional 759,810 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.65% of the company’s stock.

About Royal Gold

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.