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

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

A number of other brokerages have also issued reports on AUGO. Zacks Research lowered Aura Minerals from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 28th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Aura Minerals from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 7th. Bank of America cut their price objective on shares of Aura Minerals from $122.00 to $94.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 9th. Santander cut shares of Aura Minerals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Aura Minerals from $104.50 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Aura Minerals currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $79.27.

Aura Minerals Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of Aura Minerals stock opened at $85.31 on Friday. Aura Minerals has a fifty-two week low of $29.11 and a fifty-two week high of $110.32. The business’s fifty day moving average is $69.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $74.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.06 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $7.15 billion, a PE ratio of 24.10 and a beta of 0.28.

Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter. The business had revenue of $335.97 million during the quarter. Aura Minerals had a return on equity of 103.62% and a net margin of 23.18%. Analysts anticipate that Aura Minerals will post 5.5 earnings per share for the current year.

Aura Minerals Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th were issued a $0.72 dividend. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.4%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 18th. Aura Minerals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 81.36%.

Insider Activity

In related news, COO Glauber Luvizotto sold 64,713 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $80.20, for a total value of $5,189,982.60. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer owned 224,515 shares in the company, valued at approximately $18,006,103. This trade represents a 22.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Mauad Sousa sold 280,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.67, for a total transaction of $22,867,600.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 168,765 shares in the company, valued at $13,783,037.55. The trade was a 62.39% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders have bought 263,011 shares of company stock valued at $22,662,070 and have sold 1,327,222 shares valued at $108,817,936.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Aura Minerals

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in Aura Minerals by 42.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 977,212 shares of the company’s stock worth $79,740,000 after purchasing an additional 291,623 shares during the period. Sagil Capital LLP purchased a new position in Aura Minerals in the fourth quarter valued at about $7,864,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership raised its position in Aura Minerals by 125.1% in the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 321,582 shares of the company’s stock valued at $26,241,000 after purchasing an additional 178,730 shares during the period. Bleakley Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of Aura Minerals during the first quarter worth about $2,100,000. Finally, Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda acquired a new position in shares of Aura Minerals during the first quarter worth about $4,298,000.

Aura Minerals Company Profile

We are an Americas gold and copper production company with a significant portfolio of mining operations. Our mission is to deliver long-term value by unlocking operational efficiencies, responsibly growing our portfolio with a focus on return on invested capital, responsible mining practices and a commitment to sustainability. We operate with a decentralized culture, supported by a lean corporate team that ensures agile and dynamic management and decision-making processes, focused on high operational sustainability compliance standards.