Ninety One UK Ltd Lowers Position in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Ninety One UK Ltd cut its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 1.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,988,304 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 31,120 shares during the quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $169,563,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AU. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 2.1% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,748,740 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,589,484,000 after buying an additional 464,333 shares during the period. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,847,932 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,395,905,000 after buying an additional 1,804,620 shares during the period. Ninety One SA Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the 4th quarter valued at $1,380,472,000. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,705,516 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $401,269,000 after buying an additional 738,343 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,136,739 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $361,310,000 after buying an additional 284,017 shares during the period. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AU has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Weiss Ratings upgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday. Zacks Research downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, February 23rd. Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $122.00 target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research note on Friday, February 20th. Scotiabank lowered their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $112.20.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Up 4.8%

AU opened at $109.21 on Friday. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 12 month low of $38.61 and a 12 month high of $129.14. The stock has a market capitalization of $55.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.04 and a beta of 0.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $105.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $91.40.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The mining company reported $1.90 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.90. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.99 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 29.11% and a net margin of 26.65%. Sell-side analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.173 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is currently 133.33%.

AngloGold Ashanti Company Profile

AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold mining company engaged in the exploration, development, production, processing and sale of gold. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company’s core activities span the full mining value chain from greenfield exploration and mine development through to ore processing and rehabilitation. Gold is the primary commodity produced, with individual operations sometimes yielding other by‑products depending on local geology and processing methods.

The company was formed in 2004 through the merger of AngloGold and Ashanti Goldfields, creating a diversified international gold producer.