by Fred Fuld III
Have you ever thought about investing in gold mining companies but were concerned about the risks and lack of dividend income? You may want to consider investing in gold royalty trusts as an alternative.
Gold royalty trusts provide funds to mining company which need a large amount of capital to run their mining operations. In return, the royalty trusts receive a percentage of the gold revenues. The trusts can fund many different mining companies to provide diversification and often buy gold royalty contracts from other companies.
Some trusts also use precious metals streaming, which is when a company makes an agreement with a mining company to purchase all or part of their precious metals production at a predetermined discounted price.
So some of the main benefits of gold royalty trusts are:
- Income
- Inflation hedge
- Portfolio diversification of royalty contracts
- Gold diversification from bullion, coins, and mining companies
- Possible tax benefits for the dividends
- Avoidance of the risks of mining companies
- Significantly lower expenses due to small number of employees for the trust versus the large employe expenditures for the mining companies
- Liquidity
Here are some examples of gold and silver royalty trusts that may be worth further investigation for you hard assets and/or income portfolio.
Franco-Nevada (FNV) is a Toronto, Ontario, Canada based owner of royalties and streams, and which trades on the New York Stock Exchange. The company has a market cap of $28.4 billion and pays a dividend yield of 0.78%. Dividends are paid quarterly and have increased every year since 2014. The stock trades at 48 times trailing earnings and 44 times forward earnings. Over the last three years, revenues have grown by 15%, operating income has increased by 36%, and net income has gone up by 19%.
Wheaton Precious Metals (WPM), based in Vancouver, Canada, specializes in silver metal streaming, and has a market cap of $21 billion. Some of the companies that Wheaton has contracts with include Barrick Gold (GOLD) and Goldcorp (now part of Newmont (NEM)). Wheaton has a yield of 1.03%, with dividends paid quarterly. The latest dividend was increased by 7.7%. The stock has trailing price to earnings ratio of 37 and a forward P/E of 32.
Royal Gold (RGLD), based in Denver, Colorado and trades on the NASDAQ, provides a yield of 0.94%. Dividends were increased by 7.1% this year, and have increased every year since 2004. It is an $8.3 billion company with a trailing P/E of 31 and a forward P/E of 33.
Sandstorm Gold (SAND), based in Vancouver, has a market cap of $1.7 billion. It has a trailing P/E of 57 and a forward P/E of 56. Currently, there is no dividend.
For a list of more than half a dozen gold and silver royalty trusts along with their yields and other information, click HERE.
Hopefully, one of these gold royalty trusts will help you strike it rich.
Disclosure: Author has a long position in WPM and SAND.
