Leonteq Securities AG Buys New Shares in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Leonteq Securities AG bought a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 14,045 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,198,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AU. Empowered Funds LLC bought a new position in AngloGold Ashanti in the first quarter valued at $321,000. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 30.3% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 1,023 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $47,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 106.2% during the second quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,367 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $153,000 after buying an additional 1,734 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP grew its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 88.4% during the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 136,543 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $6,200,000 after buying an additional 64,066 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia bought a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the second quarter valued at about $1,740,000. Institutional investors own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AU has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Zacks Research cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Wall Street Zen raised AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Roth Mkm reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $121.00 price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research note on Monday, May 11th. Weiss Ratings raised AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, May 15th. Finally, Scotiabank cut their target price 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. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $112.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Performance

Shares of AU opened at $91.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a current ratio of 2.87 and a quick ratio of 2.20. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a one year low of $42.17 and a one year high of $129.14. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $98.07 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $95.76. The firm has a market capitalization of $46.36 billion, a PE ratio of 13.46 and a beta of 0.60.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.25. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 31.11% and a return on equity of 37.17%. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 9.26 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The business 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 $1.16 dividend. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.1%. This is a boost from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, May 29th. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 101.47%.

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.