Goldman Sachs upgraded Royal Gold (NASDAQ: RGLD) from Neutral to Buy with a price target of $80.00 (from $75.00).

Analyst Andrew Quail said, "The company has a world class portfolio of high-quality long life assets in our view, with the majority of assets in the bottom half of the cost curve. In the current pricing environment, we believe RGLD’s business is well placed to take advantage of opportunities that should underpin the company’s long-term cash flows. On our estimates, the company has strong revenue growth (FY14-17E CAGR of 25%) at consistently high operating margins (EBITDA margin at c.80%), leading to strong FCF generation. On an YTD basis, the stock price has increased 24%, outperforming GDX by 43% and our coverage by 37%."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on Royal Gold click here. For more ratings news on Royal Gold click here.

Shares of Royal Gold closed at $57.15 yesterday.