Lido Advisors LLC Buys Shares of 8,991 AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Lido Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 8,991 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $875,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA purchased a new position in AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter worth approximately $13,777,000. Kestra Private Wealth Services LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $1,139,000. Beacon Harbor Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $6,523,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 606.8% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 13,054 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $918,000 after purchasing an additional 11,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC now owns 122,885 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $10,556,000 after purchasing an additional 14,673 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 36.09% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AU. Scotiabank decreased 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. Freedom Capital upgraded AngloGold Ashanti to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, June 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $155.00 to $134.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 16th. Weiss Ratings cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Roth Capital dropped their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $121.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has given a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $110.50.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Down 2.0%

NYSE AU opened at $78.90 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 2.11. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $85.03 and its 200 day moving average price is $96.44. The company has a market capitalization of $39.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.57 and a beta of 0.65. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 12 month low of $45.36 and a 12 month high of $129.14.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 36.41%. The firm had revenue of $3.24 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, May 29th were issued a dividend of $1.16 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.9%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is 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.