Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Acquires 23,482 Shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 2.8% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 860,537 shares of the mining company’s stock after acquiring an additional 23,482 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $83,782,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the fourth quarter valued at $13,777,000. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC purchased a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter worth about $1,139,000. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter worth about $6,523,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 606.8% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 13,054 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $918,000 after acquiring an additional 11,207 shares during the period. Finally, Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC now owns 122,885 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $10,556,000 after acquiring an additional 14,673 shares in the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AU has been the topic of a number of research reports. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Wall Street Zen cut shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, June 6th. Freedom Capital upgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $111.67.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Up 0.2%

AU traded up $0.13 on Friday, hitting $82.04. The company had a trading volume of 2,180,030 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,693,510. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.03 and a beta of 0.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a current ratio of 2.71. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $89.79 and a 200-day moving average price of $97.22. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 12-month low of $45.36 and a 12-month high of $129.14.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.25. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 31.11% and a return on equity of 36.41%. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. Analysts predict that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Investors of record on Friday, May 29th were paid a dividend of $1.16 per share. This is a boost from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.7%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 68.04%.

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.