Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Increases Position in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund increased its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 55.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,085 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 6,773 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $1,858,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AU. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,777 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $237,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. PDS Planning Inc raised its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 3.0% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 4,246 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $362,000 after purchasing an additional 124 shares during the last quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC now owns 3,572 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $305,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 0.5% during the third quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 31,919 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $2,245,000 after purchasing an additional 147 shares during the period. Finally, CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC grew its position in AngloGold Ashanti by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 599 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $42,000 after buying an additional 150 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have commented on the stock. Scotiabank cut their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $128.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, July 14th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Roth Capital reduced their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $121.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $155.00 to $134.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, June 6th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have assigned a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.50.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Performance

Shares of AU opened at $74.89 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $96.82. The company has a quick ratio of 2.11, a current ratio of 2.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. The company has a market capitalization of $37.81 billion, a PE ratio of 10.98 and a beta of 0.65. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 52-week low of $45.36 and a 52-week high of $129.14.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by $0.25. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 31.11% and a return on equity of 36.41%. The firm had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.26 billion. Equities research analysts predict that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th were given a dividend of $1.16 per share. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AngloGold Ashanti’s 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.