Best Gold Royalty Stocks: 7 Companies Compared

This page compares seven listed royalty and streaming companies with gold exposure: Franco-Nevada, Royal Gold, Wheaton Precious Metals, Triple Flag, OR Royalties, Gold Royalty Corp and Metalla. They differ most in how much of their revenue is gold: 78% at Royal Gold, 70% at Franco-Nevada and 62% at Wheaton in 2025, according to their own filings (Royal Gold annual report; Franco-Nevada results; Wheaton results). The comparison uses facts an investor can check: gold share, royalty versus stream mix, dividends, debt and how much revenue hangs on a few mines. It is information, not advice.

How we chose these seven

We started from listed companies whose main business is owning royalties or streams on mines, with gold the largest or a major metal where the company states a share. Gold Royalty Corp and Metalla do not state a gold share, so they are included as small gold-focused names and flagged as such. We kept companies that file audited accounts with a major securities regulator and still trade under their own name. That keeps OR Royalties (renamed, same company) and leaves out Sandstorm (bought by Royal Gold) and EMX (merged into Elemental Royalty, which is covered in a note below). We then compared them on the same questions every time, using the company’s own annual report or results release. Where a company reports in its own way, we say so rather than force the numbers into one scale.

Chart

Gold share of reported results, 2025

% of revenue (Royal Gold, Franco-Nevada, Wheaton); % of GEOs sold (Triple Flag)

• Gold share of revenue. Many royalty companies also hold silver, copper, iron ore, oil and gas. A higher gold share means the results follow the gold price more closely.
• Mix of royalties and streams. The two contracts behave differently (explained below), so we show which one a company mostly owns.
• Concentration. How much revenue comes from the top mines. One suspended mine matters more when it carries a large share.
• Balance sheet and payouts. Debt, dividends and share buybacks, taken from the latest filing.
• Size and track record. Revenue in 2025, and whether the company reports growth in ounces as well as in dollars.

We did not rank by share price or total return. Prices move daily and change every comparison, so we give none. We also left out companies that no longer trade as a separate stock (see the section on names that changed). A GEO, or gold equivalent ounce, is the unit most of these companies use: silver, copper and other income is converted into ounces of gold at a ratio the company chooses. Because each company picks its own ratios, GEO counts are not directly comparable between companies.

The chart shows the gold share that each company reports. Triple Flag publishes ounces by metal rather than revenue by metal, so its bar is the gold share of GEOs sold and not of revenue.

Best gold royalty stocks compared

The table gives the headline facts. Each company is described below it with a “best for” line and a plain list of strengths and limits. The table is ordered by 2025 revenue, from largest to smallest. The numbered profiles that follow start with Franco-Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton and then run by size; the order is not a ranking or a recommendation.

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Revenue before and after the 2025 gold price rise

US$ million, as reported

Sources: each company’s 2025 annual results or annual report, linked in the sections below. Dividend figures are the amounts most recently declared in those documents and can change. Revenue is reported in US dollars for all seven.

1. Franco-Nevada (TSX and NYSE: FNV)

Best for: an investor who wants the largest diversified portfolio and a long dividend record.

Franco-Nevada reported record 2025 revenue of US$1,822.8 million and sold 519,106 GEOs, of which 11,208 came from the Cobre Panamá mine in Panama, which has been suspended since November 2023. Gold supplied about 70% of revenue (US$1,275.8 million of US$1,822.8 million), silver about 13% and platinum-group metals about 2%. The rest came from iron ore, oil, gas and other mining assets, which the company calls its Diversified assets. The company says it has no debt and US$3.1 billion in available capital at the time of its annual results, and it raised its quarterly dividend by 16% to US$0.44 per share in January 2026, the 19th consecutive annual increase; in August 2026 it declared US$0.44 again and reported US$4.3 billion in available capital at 30 June 2026 (Franco-Nevada, August 2026; Franco-Nevada, March 2026).

• Pros: no debt, a wide spread of mines across the Americas (89% of Q4 revenue), and a dividend raised every year for 19 years.
• Cons: about 14% of 2025 revenue came from oil, gas and iron ore, so it is not a pure gold exposure. Cobre Panamá is out of its 2026 guidance, so a restart would add output but is not in the base case. From 2026 it uses fixed GEO conversion ratios, which makes year-on-year comparisons with older GEO counts harder.

2. Royal Gold (Nasdaq: RGLD)

Best for: an investor who wants the highest gold share among the large companies and a dividend raised for 25 years running.

Royal Gold earned US$1,030.5 million in 2025, of which streams brought US$686.5 million and royalties US$344.0 million. Gold was 78% of revenue and silver 12%, with copper at 7%. It holds royalty interests on 63 producing properties. In October 2025 it bought Sandstorm Gold and Horizon Copper for US$4.148 billion, and it also acquired a gold stream on the Kansanshi mine in Zambia. The annual dividend for 2026 is US$1.90 per share, paid in quarterly amounts of US$0.475, which the company announced as its 25th consecutive annual increase (Royal Gold, 18 November 2025; Royal Gold annual report).

• Pros: the highest gold share in this group, 25 consecutive annual dividend increases (company release, November 2025), and the Sandstorm deal added many smaller royalties.
• Cons: about 53% of 2025 revenue came from five properties, and the company expects a few operating properties to keep a large share. It had US$900 million drawn on its credit facility at the end of 2025 to fund the deals, and US$725 million at the date of its report.

3. Wheaton Precious Metals (TSX, NYSE and LSE: WPM)

Best for: an investor who wants a business that is almost all streams, with large silver exposure alongside gold.

Wheaton holds mostly streams, plus a few royalties such as Mt. Todd and Black Pine. Its 2025 revenue was US$2,314.6 million, up 80.2% from US$1,284.6 million, and the mix was 62% gold, 36% silver, 1% palladium and 1% cobalt. It reports streaming and royalty agreements on 23 operating mines and 25 development and other projects. In the fourth quarter its average cash cost was US$597 per GEO, against a cash operating margin of US$3,941 per GEO. In February 2026 it agreed to pay BHP US$4.3 billion up front for a further silver stream at the Antamina mine, financed with cash, a new term loan and its credit facility, and at 30 June 2026 it reported debt of US$2.0 billion and net debt of US$1.9 billion, with a quarterly dividend of US$0.195 declared (Wheaton, August 2026; Wheaton, March 2026). Our companion page on silver royalty and streaming companies covers that side in more detail.

• Pros: the largest revenue of the seven, a cost per ounce that is small next to the selling price, and a spread of 48 mines and projects.
• Cons: 36% of revenue is silver, so it follows gold less closely than Royal Gold. The Antamina payment is partly debt-funded; Wheaton reported net debt of US$1.9 billion at 30 June 2026. A stream is not an interest in land, unlike a royalty.

4. Triple Flag Precious Metals (TSX and NYSE: TFPM)

Best for: an investor who wants a mid-sized company that reports steady ounce growth.

Triple Flag sold 113,237 GEOs in 2025, its ninth consecutive annual record, on revenue of US$388.7 million. Gold made up 72,766 GEOs (about 64%) and silver 40,471 GEOs (about 36%). The quarterly dividend was US$0.0575 per share at the end of 2025. For 2026 it expects 95,000 to 105,000 GEOs, lower than 2025, partly because the silver stream at Cerro Lindo steps down from 65% to 25% of payable silver once 19.5 million ounces have been delivered (Triple Flag annual MD&A).

• Pros: a record of rising ounces for nine years, and a dividend that has risen each year in the filing’s three-year table.
• Cons: its own guidance points to fewer ounces in 2026, and silver is about a third of the mix.

5. OR Royalties (TSX and NYSE: OR), formerly Osisko Gold Royalties

Best for: an investor who wants a mostly royalty company with a very high cash margin and a Canadian anchor asset.

The company changed its name from Osisko Gold Royalties in May 2025 and kept the ticker OR. It earned 80,775 GEOs and a record US$277.4 million in revenue in 2025. Precious metals were 95% of revenue, and the cash margin was about 97%. It repaid its credit facility in full during 2025. Its cornerstone is a 3-5% NSR royalty on the Canadian Malartic mine in Quebec, operated by Agnico Eagle. For 2026 it guides to 80,000 to 90,000 GEOs and to 120,000 to 135,000 GEOs in 2030 (OR Royalties annual MD&A).

• Pros: low costs, no borrowings drawn at year end, and a long-life anchor asset with underground development under way.
• Cons: two interests produced 56% of 2025 revenue, one of them alone US$108.2 million (about 39%). The Eagle Gold mine in Yukon is in receivership and is assumed to add nothing to the five-year outlook, and the Renard diamond stream has paid very little since the operator’s 2023 insolvency filing, because the mine is on care and maintenance and sold only a small number of diamonds in 2024 and 2025.

6. Gold Royalty Corp (NYSE American: GROY)

Best for: an investor who accepts small-company risk in exchange for a company that guides to fast ounce growth.

Gold Royalty reported record 2025 revenue of US$15.6 million on 5,173 GEOs, with positive operating cash flow of US$6.2 million. It ended the year with over US$12 million in cash, no debt and a credit facility increased to US$150 million. It guides to 7,500 to 9,300 GEOs in 2026 and 28,000 to 34,000 GEOs in 2030, using a gold price of US$5,150 per ounce for the 2026 range (Gold Royalty results, March 2026).

• Pros: a small base means a small number of new mines can change the total, and the balance sheet shows no debt.
• Cons: revenue is a fraction of one percent of Franco-Nevada’s, many interests have only partial coverage of the mine, and the 2030 figure depends on projects that are still in development. Its assumed price differs from Franco-Nevada’s US$4,500, so the guidance ranges are not like for like.

7. Metalla Royalty & Streaming (TSXV and NYSE American: MTA)

Best for: an investor who wants small-company exposure and accepts that one mine can swing the result.

Metalla’s 2025 royalty revenue was US$11.7 million (US$5.9 million in 2024) on 3,436 attributable GEOs, with a net loss of US$4.2 million. Its 2026 guidance is 3,500 to 4,500 attributable GEOs at assumed prices of US$4,500 per ounce of gold, US$75 for silver and US$5 per pound of copper, and it expects more of that income in the second half of the year (Metalla results). Our page on Metalla and other junior royalty firms goes into the smaller names.

• Pros: a cash cost of about US$10 per attributable GEO, and royalties on several mines that are still ramping up.
• Cons: still loss-making in 2025 and very small, so one operator’s delay can move the result. It is the smallest company in this list.

One more name belongs on the watch list: Elemental Royalty (TSX and Nasdaq: ELE), the new name of Elemental Altus after it merged with EMX Royalty in November 2025. We did not include it in the seven because we did not review a full-year annual report for the merged company.

Royalty versus stream: what each one pays

A royalty is a right to a share of a mine’s output or income. An NSR, or net smelter return royalty, pays a fixed percentage of what the smelter or refinery pays the mine, after off-site costs such as transport and refining. The holder pays no mining costs. Law firm Clayton Utz describes the deductions as set by the contract, so two NSR royalties with the same percentage can pay differently (Clayton Utz, 2024).

A stream is different. In return for money up front, the buyer gets the right to buy a share of a mine’s metal at a low fixed or formula price for as long as the contract runs. The royalty company Ecora explains that a stream is not an interest in land and needs an ongoing cash payment per ounce, but that the stream holder is not usually asked to pay operating, capital or reclamation costs (Ecora Resources). For example, the Casa Berardi gold stream that Franco-Nevada agreed to buy requires a payment of 20% of the spot price on each ounce delivered.

Do not confuse these private contracts with the royalty a mine pays its government. In Queensland, Australia, for instance, gold, silver and base metals carry a state royalty that varies between 2.50% and 5.00% of value depending on average metal prices (Queensland Revenue Office). A private royalty or stream is a separate right, paid to a company that financed the project.

Streams, then, bring in the spot price minus a small payment, so cash margins per ounce are high but not as high as a royalty’s. Royalties cost almost nothing to hold, but they are paid after the mine’s own deductions. The tool below shows both on one example mine.

By-product silver complicates both. Silver often comes out of copper, lead and zinc mines rather than from silver mines, which is why some of these companies hold streams on base metal mines (more on silver by-products).

▶ How gold is mined and refined, from rock to ring · 5:27

Are gold royalty companies low risk?

They carry less of some risks and still carry others. A royalty or stream owner does not pay to dig, crush or truck ore. The World Gold Council reports that the average all-in sustaining cost for gold producers reached US$1,785 per ounce in the first quarter of 2026, up 16% from a year earlier, with royalty payments rising 85% year on year and now making up about 12% of the average mine’s cost base (World Gold Council, August 2026). The World Gold Council’s royalty figure covers all royalties that mines pay, including government royalties, so it only shows that the rise is general; private royalty holders gain when revenue rises. OR Royalties reports a 97% cash margin and Metalla a cost of US$10 per attributable GEO.

Chart

Where Royal Gold’s 2025 revenue came from

% of total revenue by property; these five properties together gave 53%

The risks that remain are these:

• Operator risk. The royalty holder cannot decide how a mine is run. Cobre Panamá has been suspended since November 2023, and OR Royalties’ Eagle Gold royalty and Renard diamond stream are both affected by their operators’ financial trouble.
• Concentration. Royal Gold’s top five properties provided 53% of its 2025 revenue and OR Royalties’ top two provided 56%. The chart shows the Royal Gold split.
• Gold price. Revenue follows the price. Franco-Nevada’s revenue rose 64% in 2025 on higher precious metal prices and more ounces, and the same link works in reverse.
• Contract terms. Some interests step down after a set number of ounces, as the Triple Flag silver stream at Cerro Lindo does and as Royal Gold’s streams at Andacollo, Kansanshi and Pueblo Viejo do after thresholds.
• Debt and share issues. Royal Gold borrowed for its 2025 purchases, Wheaton will for Antamina, and several firms pay for deals with new shares.

Whether this is safer than owning a mining company depends on the miner and the royalty company being compared, so we leave the verdict to you. For a longer discussion of the question, see our guide on what gold royalty companies are and who the key players are.

Estimate what a royalty or stream pays

Enter your own numbers below. The default mine is an example: a royalty that takes 2% of output, and a stream that buys 10% of the gold for a fixed payment per ounce. Replace the gold price with today’s price from a source such as the LBMA or Kitco.

Names that changed or no longer trade

Several names in older lists are out of date. Check the exchange listing before you search for a ticker.

• Sandstorm Gold: bought by Royal Gold on 20 October 2025. Royal Gold issued 18.6 million shares to Sandstorm shareholders and paid US$380.9 million in cash to repay Sandstorm’s credit facility. Sandstorm is now part of Royal Gold.
• Osisko Gold Royalties: renamed OR Royalties Inc. in May 2025, ticker OR on both the TSX and the NYSE.
• EMX Royalty: merged with Elemental Altus on 13 November 2025. The combined company is Elemental Royalty (merger announcement), and EMX no longer trades under its own name.

For a wider list that includes more of the mid-sized and junior names, our top 10 gold royalty companies page runs through them, and the page on Canadian precious metal stocks covers listed miners as well.

What to check before you buy any royalty company

1. Read the segment table. Find revenue by metal. Franco-Nevada, Royal Gold and Wheaton each publish it every quarter.
2. Look at the top five mines. Royal Gold gives the percentages in its annual report. Where a company does not, ask how much one mine can move the result.
3. Know the conversion ratios. A GEO count depends on the gold-to-silver ratio and price assumptions chosen by the company. Franco-Nevada, Metalla and Gold Royalty assumed different gold prices in their latest guidance, so compare ounces only within one company.
4. Check debt and cash. Compare borrowings with operating cash flow. Royal Gold’s and Wheaton’s figures are above.
5. Read the contract terms. Look for step-downs, caps on ounces, buy-down options (Franco-Nevada’s 6.0% NSR on the AurMac property, for example, is subject to a buydown at the operator’s election) and whether the royalty covers the whole mine or only part of it.
6. Check the operator. Mine plans, permits and the operator’s own balance sheet matter as much as the royalty percentage.
7. Use dated information. Every figure on this page is from a filing dated 2026 or earlier. Look for newer filings before you rely on any of them.

Where the gold sits beneath a royalty

The mine, not the contract, produces the ounces. A royalty on a deposit that is poorly understood is a bet on geology. Public reserve statements from the operator are the main evidence, and remote sensing is a first screen that a geologist can run before drilling. Satellite images show clues such as iron-oxide staining, clay and silica alteration, and faults, not gold itself.

▶ What a satellite gold map shows and how to read one · 4:18

If you hold a licence: what selling a royalty means

For licence holders, the same contracts work from the other side. A royalty company pays an up-front sum, and in return it receives a percentage of future revenue or output from your project. The operator keeps all the mining risk and the operating cost, and the royalty holder keeps no say in how the mine is run. That arrangement is one of several ways a project can be funded; our guide to how projects are funded from licence to mill compares the others. A buyer will ask for the licence terms, a technical report, and evidence that the ground carries gold. Farmonaut produces satellite mineral detection reports for a licence boundary (KML, KMZ or polygon), which can be part of that evidence, but a royalty buyer will still want drilling data and an independent technical report. Have a mining lawyer review any royalty agreement, because the deductions, step-downs and buy-back rights in it decide what it pays.

For a closer look at a related question, see our guide: Deep Sea Mining Companies and Machine Makers Compared.

Frequently asked questions

What is a gold royalty stock?

It is a share in a company that owns royalties or streams on gold mines and receives a part of their income or ounces. The company does not run the mines. The seven above are examples listed on the TSX, NYSE, Nasdaq or related exchanges.

Are gold royalty stocks good investments?

That is a decision for you and a licensed adviser, and this page does not make it. The facts to weigh are in the sections above: gold share, concentration, debt, dividends and the quality of the operators. Both a gold price fall and a mine suspension reduce a royalty company’s revenue.

Are gold royalty companies low risk?

They avoid the cost of mining, but they are exposed to the gold price, to a few large mines, and to what the operators do. Cobre Panamá, Eagle Gold and Renard each show how an operator’s problem passes through to the royalty holder.

Are gold royalty companies safer than miners?

They have different risks, not none. A royalty company is exposed less to cost inflation, which the World Gold Council puts at a 16% rise in average mine all-in sustaining cost over a year to the first quarter of 2026. A miner has control over its own operations and can add output by itself, which a royalty holder cannot.

What is the difference between a royalty and a stream?

A royalty pays a share of revenue and costs the holder nothing per ounce. A stream gives the right to buy metal at a low set price, so each ounce costs the holder a payment. Wheaton holds mostly streams, with a few royalties, and Franco-Nevada and Royal Gold hold both.

Do gold royalty stocks pay dividends?

The larger ones do. Franco-Nevada declared US$0.44 per share quarterly, Royal Gold US$0.475, Wheaton US$0.195, Triple Flag US$0.0575 and OR Royalties US$0.055 in the documents we cite. Dividends can be cut or raised, so check the latest declaration.

Which gold royalty company has the highest share of gold?

Of the large companies, Royal Gold at 78% of 2025 revenue, then Franco-Nevada at 70% and Wheaton at 62%. OR Royalties reports 95% precious metals but does not split gold and silver in the part of its report we read.

How do I invest in gold royalties?

Most people buy shares through a brokerage, since the companies trade on major exchanges. Private royalties also exist, but they are negotiated contracts attached to a specific property. They are usually illiquid and need legal advice.

What happened to Sandstorm Gold, Osisko and EMX?

Royal Gold bought Sandstorm in October 2025. Osisko Gold Royalties became OR Royalties in May 2025. EMX merged into Elemental Altus, which is now Elemental Royalty, in November 2025.

What does GEO mean in a royalty company’s report?

It stands for gold equivalent ounce. The company converts income from silver, copper and other metals into ounces of gold using its own ratios, so the totals are not directly comparable across companies.