Summit Securities Group LLC Increases Stock Holdings in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Summit Securities Group LLC boosted its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 634.4% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 12,485 shares of the mining company’s stock after acquiring an additional 10,785 shares during the period. Summit Securities Group LLC’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $1,216,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,001,047 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,979,174,000 after acquiring an additional 252,307 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One SA Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,380,472,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 406.9% in the fourth quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 6,288,253 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $539,119,000 after purchasing an additional 5,047,686 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 0.5% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,731,937 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $488,820,000 after purchasing an additional 26,421 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,136,739 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $361,310,000 after purchasing an additional 284,017 shares in the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Roth Capital dropped their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $121.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Freedom Capital raised AngloGold Ashanti to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, June 26th. Weiss Ratings lowered AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Scotiabank dropped their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $111.67.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of AngloGold Ashanti stock opened at $81.98 on Friday. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a fifty-two week low of $45.36 and a fifty-two week high of $129.14. The business’s fifty day moving average is $89.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.32. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The firm has a market cap of $41.39 billion, a PE ratio of 12.02 and a beta of 0.65.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 36.41% and a net margin of 31.11%. Analysts anticipate that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were issued a $1.16 dividend. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.04%.

AngloGold Ashanti Profile

AngloGold Ashanti is a global gold mining company engaged in the exploration, development, production, processing and sale of gold. Headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa, the company’s core activities span the full mining value chain from greenfield exploration and mine development through to ore processing and rehabilitation. Gold is the primary commodity produced, with individual operations sometimes yielding other by‑products depending on local geology and processing methods.

The company was formed in 2004 through the merger of AngloGold and Ashanti Goldfields, creating a diversified international gold producer.