AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) Plans $0.17 Quarterly Dividend

AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, February 20th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.173 per share by the mining company on Friday, March 27th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a yield of 0.6%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 13th.

AngloGold Ashanti has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.5%per year over the last three years. AngloGold Ashanti has a dividend payout ratio of 113.8% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect AngloGold Ashanti to earn $4.14 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $3.64 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 87.9%.

AngloGold Ashanti Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AU traded up $6.75 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $114.38. 4,872,837 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 3,037,323. AngloGold Ashanti has a twelve month low of $28.44 and a twelve month high of $115.81. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $97.79 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $79.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 2.58. The company has a market cap of $57.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.19 and a beta of 0.59.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The mining company reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.90 by ($0.22). AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 24.01% and a net margin of 26.25%.The business had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. As a group, analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti will post 3.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a report on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research upgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, January 23rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $128.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 3rd. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $100.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Company 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.