AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU Stock Purchased by U S Global Investors Inc.

U S Global Investors Inc. increased its stake in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 603.6% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 70,364 shares of the mining company’s stock after purchasing an additional 60,364 shares during the period. U S Global Investors Inc.’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $6,611,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AU. Ninety One SA Pty Ltd increased its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 1.8% during the third quarter. Ninety One SA Pty Ltd now owns 11,398,551 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,069,147,000 after buying an additional 203,418 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 1.6% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,386,503 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $620,874,000 after buying an additional 98,250 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 8.7% during the second quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 1,930,737 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $156,214,000 after purchasing an additional 154,726 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $100,848,000. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 2.8% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 860,537 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $83,782,000 after purchasing an additional 23,482 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AU. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 15th. Scotiabank cut their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $128.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Freedom Broker increased their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $107.00 to $111.50 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday. Freedom Capital raised shares of AngloGold Ashanti to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Finally, RBC Dominion Securities set a $110.00 target price on AngloGold Ashanti and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $118.06.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Down 7.0%

Shares of NYSE AU opened at $85.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.94 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.40 and a beta of 0.73. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a one year low of $62.55 and a one year high of $129.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.15, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 2.07. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $101.47 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $94.49.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 30th. The mining company reported $1.98 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.03 by ($0.05). AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 38.77% and a net margin of 32.19%. The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.20 billion. As a group, analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 4th. Investors of record on Friday, August 21st were paid a dividend of $0.72 per share. This is a drop from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 21st. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.4%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is 6.70%.

About AngloGold Ashanti

AngloGold Ashanti plc is a global gold mining company engaged in the exploration, development, and operation of gold mines. Its principal product is refined gold, and the company also produces related byproducts at certain operations. In addition to operating mines, AngloGold Ashanti maintains exploration and development projects intended to expand and sustain its production portfolio.

The company has a geographically diversified portfolio spanning Africa, Australia, and the Americas. Its operations and projects have included assets in Ghana, Tanzania, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Australia, Brazil, and Argentina.