First Trust Advisors LP Trims Stock Position in AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU)

First Trust Advisors LP decreased its position in AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) by 11.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 37,645 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 5,105 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $848,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 274.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,133,744 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $118,448,000 after buying an additional 3,764,165 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP lifted its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 3,767.1% in the 4th quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 2,751,410 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $63,503,000 after acquiring an additional 2,680,261 shares during the last quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 9.4% during the 4th quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 5,799 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $134,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 165.3% in the 4th quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 84,640 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,953,000 after purchasing an additional 52,740 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Gabelli Funds LLC raised its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 100.7% in the fourth quarter. Gabelli Funds LLC now owns 560,417 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $12,934,000 after purchasing an additional 281,117 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $39.00 to $41.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 4th. HSBC reaffirmed a “reduce” rating and issued a $35.00 target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Scotiabank increased their price target on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $34.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $33.00 to $53.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $41.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Performance

Shares of AngloGold Ashanti stock opened at $41.87 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $37.53 and a 200-day simple moving average of $30.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 1.73. AngloGold Ashanti plc has a one year low of $22.13 and a one year high of $46.90. The company has a market cap of $17.57 billion, a PE ratio of 13.08 and a beta of 0.48.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The mining company reported $0.89 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.10). The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.75 billion. On average, equities research analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti plc will post 3.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were paid a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 14th. This is a boost from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.22. This represents a yield of 2.8%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.13%.

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.