O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC Purchases 28,955 Shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 27.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 134,676 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 28,955 shares during the quarter. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $11,486,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Syon Capital LLC bought a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti during the fourth quarter valued at about $215,000. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 64.5% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 4,186,463 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $357,022,000 after acquiring an additional 1,641,545 shares during the period. Havemeyer Place LP bought a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti during the fourth quarter valued at about $450,000. WINTON GROUP Ltd bought a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti during the fourth quarter valued at about $452,000. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $237,000 after acquiring an additional 96 shares during the period. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on AU shares. Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of 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. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Weiss Ratings cut shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Zacks Research cut shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $114.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Down 7.1%

NYSE AU opened at $78.44 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.71. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $97.65 and a 200 day simple moving average of $97.24. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a twelve month low of $43.44 and a twelve month high of $129.14. The stock has a market cap of $39.61 billion, a PE ratio of 11.50 and a beta of 0.60.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.25. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 31.11% and a return on equity of 36.41%. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.26 billion. On average, research analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 9.26 EPS for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th will be paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 29th. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is 68.04%.

AngloGold Ashanti 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.