Artisan Partners Limited Partnership Acquires New Shares in AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU)

Artisan Partners Limited Partnership bought a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 423,391 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,772,000. Artisan Partners Limited Partnership owned approximately 0.10% of AngloGold Ashanti as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AU. Whittier Trust Co. purchased a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the 4th quarter worth approximately $25,000. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 210.6% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,174 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 796 shares during the last quarter. R Squared Ltd purchased a new position in AngloGold Ashanti during the fourth quarter worth $36,000. Decker Retirement Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter worth $69,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter valued at $82,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $37.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $34.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Up 2.3 %

Shares of AU stock opened at $37.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.14. AngloGold Ashanti plc has a 1-year low of $21.65 and a 1-year high of $38.16. The firm has a market cap of $15.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.56 and a beta of 0.92.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last posted 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 business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. As a group, equities analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti plc will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.69 per share. This represents a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.22. AngloGold Ashanti’s payout ratio is 43.13%.

AngloGold Ashanti 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.