AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU Shares Acquired by Handelsbanken Fonder AB

Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its position in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 17.1% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 152,293 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 22,229 shares during the quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $10,711,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 2.1% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 22,748,740 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $1,589,484,000 after acquiring an additional 464,333 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp increased its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 1,175.7% during the 2nd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,967,173 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $226,354,000 after purchasing an additional 4,577,807 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,852,722 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $219,100,000 after purchasing an additional 87,679 shares in the last quarter. Amundi raised its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Amundi now owns 3,197,861 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $149,212,000 after purchasing an additional 140,410 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 274.6% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,137,721 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $142,986,000 after buying an additional 2,300,204 shares during the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on AU. Weiss Ratings cut shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $128.00 to $131.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 3rd. Scotiabank reaffirmed an “outperform” rating on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Zacks Research cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $100.50.

AngloGold Ashanti Trading Up 1.3%

AngloGold Ashanti stock opened at $127.73 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.21, a quick ratio of 1.98 and a current ratio of 2.58. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 1 year low of $28.44 and a 1 year high of $128.54. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $101.77 and its 200-day moving average is $81.89. The company has a market cap of $64.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.61 and a beta of 0.55.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 20th. The mining company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $1.90. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 26.65% and a return on equity of 29.70%. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 3.83 earnings per share for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 27th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.173 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.5%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 13th. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is presently 70.13%.

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.