Anchor Capital Advisors LLC Sells 99,862 Shares of Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD)

Anchor Capital Advisors LLC cut its holdings in Royal Gold, Inc. (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) by 24.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 313,342 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 99,862 shares during the period. Anchor Capital Advisors LLC owned 0.48% of Royal Gold worth $37,902,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in RGLD. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 4,280,676 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $455,165,000 after acquiring an additional 54,449 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 699,138 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $74,339,000 after acquiring an additional 3,541 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 0.7% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 450,135 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,863,000 after acquiring an additional 3,067 shares in the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 3.1% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 247,112 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $29,891,000 after acquiring an additional 7,334 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Royal Gold by 28.0% during the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 236,621 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $25,160,000 after acquiring an additional 51,795 shares in the last quarter. 83.65% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Royal Gold Stock Down 0.3 %

Shares of RGLD traded down $0.32 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $124.26. 294,630 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 432,181. Royal Gold, Inc. has a 52 week low of $100.55 and a 52 week high of $147.82. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 2.18 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.08. The company’s 50 day moving average is $115.03 and its two-hundred day moving average is $115.01. The company has a market capitalization of $8.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.26, a PEG ratio of 7.13 and a beta of 0.87.

Royal Gold (NASDAQ:RGLD) (TSE:RGL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.95 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.75 by $0.20. Royal Gold had a return on equity of 8.18% and a net margin of 39.53%. The business had revenue of $152.70 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $140.32 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.91 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 6.3% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Royal Gold, Inc. will post 4.36 earnings per share for the current year.

Royal Gold Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 19th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were given a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.29%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. Royal Gold’s payout ratio is 43.96%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on RGLD. National Bank Financial raised Royal Gold from a “sector perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on Royal Gold in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. They set a “hold” rating and a $117.00 target price on the stock. Cantor Fitzgerald downgraded Royal Gold from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 15th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised Royal Gold from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $148.00 to $158.00 in a research report on Wednesday, March 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $143.25.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Randy Shefman sold 500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, March 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $113.00, for a total transaction of $56,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 12,127 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,370,351. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.52% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.