AngloGold Ashanti plc (AU) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 14th

AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) declared a semi-annual dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.69 per share by the mining company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.22.

AngloGold Ashanti has a payout ratio of 13.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AngloGold Ashanti to earn $4.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 10.6%.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Up 3.1 %

NYSE:AU opened at $32.02 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.73. AngloGold Ashanti has a one year low of $17.01 and a one year high of $33.77. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $27.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $27.62.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The mining company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.75 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on AU. Scotiabank upgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research note on Thursday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $37.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, StockNews.com cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $33.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Company Profile

AngloGold Ashanti plc operates as a gold mining company in Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The company primarily explores for gold, as well as produces silver and sulphuric acid as by-products. Its flagship property is a 100% owned Geita mine located in the Lake Victoria goldfields of the Mwanza region in north-western Tanzania.