State of Wyoming Boosts Stock Position in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

State of Wyoming grew its stake in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 152.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 8,990 shares of the mining company’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,428 shares during the period. State of Wyoming’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $767,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ninety One SA Pty Ltd acquired a new position in AngloGold Ashanti during the fourth quarter worth $1,380,472,000. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter valued at $426,477,000. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 1,175.7% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,967,173 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $226,354,000 after acquiring an additional 4,577,807 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp raised its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 10.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,847,932 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,395,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,804,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital World Investors raised its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 125.8% in the third quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 2,544,918 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $178,984,000 after acquiring an additional 1,417,775 shares in the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on AU shares. Weiss Ratings cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Monday. Zacks Research cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $121.00 price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $112.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Up 2.7%

AngloGold Ashanti stock opened at $92.31 on Friday. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 1-year low of $43.44 and a 1-year high of $129.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.20. The stock has a market cap of $46.61 billion, a PE ratio of 13.54 and a beta of 0.60. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $98.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $97.16.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.25. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 37.17% and a net margin of 31.11%.The company had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.26 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 9.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th will be issued a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 29th. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.0%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is 68.04%.

About AngloGold Ashanti

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.