West Michigan Advisors LLC Trims Position in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

West Michigan Advisors LLC lessened its stake in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 82.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 7,177 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 33,886 shares during the period. West Michigan Advisors LLC’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $612,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. PDS Planning Inc increased its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 3.0% in the 4th quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,246 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $362,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 4.1% during the 4th quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,572 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $305,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 0.5% during the 3rd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 31,919 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,245,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC increased its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 33.4% during the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 599 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $42,000 after purchasing an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 4.8% during the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,528 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $248,000 after purchasing an additional 161 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on AU. Zacks Research downgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Scotiabank cut their target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 20th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 28th. Finally, Roth Mkm reissued a “buy” rating and set a $122.00 target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $112.20.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Down 2.2%

NYSE AU opened at $96.72 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.87. The company has a market capitalization of $48.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.64 and a beta of 0.66. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $104.45 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $92.19. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a one year low of $38.61 and a one year high of $129.14.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 20th. The mining company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 26.65% and a return on equity of 29.11%. The business had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.99 billion. Equities analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.78 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th were issued a $0.173 dividend. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 13th. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 133.33%.

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.