Van ECK Associates Corp Purchases 80,563 Shares of AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU)

Van ECK Associates Corp increased its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 22,920,684 shares of the mining company’s stock after purchasing an additional 80,563 shares during the period. AngloGold Ashanti accounts for 0.7% of Van ECK Associates Corp’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest holding. Van ECK Associates Corp owned 5.46% of AngloGold Ashanti worth $610,378,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. CWM LLC boosted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 26.1% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 2,383 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 493 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 17.3% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,938 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 433 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 338.3% in the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,471 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $87,000 after purchasing an additional 2,679 shares in the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 32.4% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 4,215 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 1,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the third quarter valued at about $126,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AU has been the subject of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $28.00 to $34.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 7th. StockNews.com raised shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $32.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Scotiabank restated a “sector underperform” rating and issued a $30.00 target price (up from $27.00) on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a report on Monday, August 19th. Finally, Investec raised shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.67.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Down 1.8 %

Shares of AU opened at $27.29 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $28.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $26.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.83 and a quick ratio of 1.19. AngloGold Ashanti plc has a twelve month low of $15.60 and a twelve month high of $32.57.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, August 6th. The mining company reported $0.60 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.51 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.23 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.17 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti plc will post 2.5 earnings per share for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a Semi-Annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 13th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 30th were paid a $0.22 dividend. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous Semi-Annual dividend of $0.19. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 30th. This represents a yield of 0.7%.

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.