Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) Cut to “Hold” at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen cut shares of Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on AUGO. Zacks Research raised shares of Aura Minerals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on Aura Minerals from $104.50 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings raised Aura Minerals from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Scotiabank initiated coverage on Aura Minerals in a report on Thursday, September 17th. They issued a “sector outperform” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Santander lowered Aura Minerals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and three have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $86.95.

Aura Minerals Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of AUGO opened at $91.80 on Friday. Aura Minerals has a twelve month low of $29.11 and a twelve month high of $110.32. The company has a market cap of $7.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.93 and a beta of 0.48. The company has a current ratio of 1.06, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $82.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $76.16.

Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $2.57 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. The firm had revenue of $335.97 million during the quarter. Aura Minerals had a net margin of 23.18% and a return on equity of 103.62%. As a group, analysts expect that Aura Minerals will post 5.91 EPS for the current year.

Aura Minerals Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, August 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. This is a drop from Aura Minerals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.1%. Aura Minerals’s dividend payout ratio is currently 81.36%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Aura Minerals

In other Aura Minerals news, Director Mauad Sousa sold 166,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.65, for a total value of $15,047,900.00. Following the sale, the director owned 1,041 shares in the company, valued at approximately $94,366.65. This represents a 99.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In the last quarter, insiders have acquired 263,011 shares of company stock valued at $22,662,070 and have sold 1,568,065 shares valued at $133,318,052.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Bank of America Corp DE increased its holdings in Aura Minerals by 42.5% in the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 977,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,740,000 after acquiring an additional 291,623 shares in the last quarter. Jennison Associates LLC acquired a new position in Aura Minerals during the first quarter worth about $50,378,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its holdings in shares of Aura Minerals by 125.1% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 321,582 shares of the company’s stock worth $26,241,000 after purchasing an additional 178,730 shares during the last quarter. Andra AP fonden acquired a new position in Aura Minerals during the second quarter worth $10,550,000. Finally, Decker Retirement Planning Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Aura Minerals in the first quarter valued at about $4,814,000.

Aura Minerals Company Profile

Aura Minerals Inc is a mining company focused on the exploration, development and production of gold, copper and other associated minerals. The company operates a portfolio of mines and projects in the Americas and sells the metals produced from its operations to commercial customers.

Aura’s assets include the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico, the San Andrés gold mine in Honduras, and gold operations in Brazil, including the Almas and Apoena complexes. The company also has development and exploration projects intended to support future production and extend the operating life of its portfolio.

Headquartered in the Americas and listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol AUGO, Aura Minerals has built its business through the acquisition, development and operation of precious- and base-metal assets.