Swiss National Bank Sells 127,541 Shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Swiss National Bank trimmed its stake in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 11.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 973,803 shares of the mining company’s stock after selling 127,541 shares during the quarter. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $94,106,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AU. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC lifted its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 12.6% during the 1st quarter. Precision Wealth Strategies LLC now owns 11,461 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,116,000 after buying an additional 1,285 shares in the last quarter. Crescent Grove Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AngloGold Ashanti in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $572,000. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 121.9% during the 1st quarter. Euro Pacific Asset Management LLC now owns 272,740 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $26,889,000 after acquiring an additional 149,855 shares during the period. SteelPeak Wealth LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the first quarter worth $2,434,000. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 5.7% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 654,258 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $67,729,000 after acquiring an additional 35,468 shares in the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AU has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. 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. Scotiabank reduced their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $128.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 14th. Zacks Research cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 15th. Weiss Ratings downgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, Freedom Capital upgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, June 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.50.

AngloGold Ashanti Price Performance

Shares of AngloGold Ashanti stock opened at $74.89 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19, a current ratio of 2.71 and a quick ratio of 2.11. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a one year low of $45.36 and a one year high of $129.14. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.15 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $96.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.98 and a beta of 0.65.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.26 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 31.11% and a return on equity of 36.41%. Analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.79 EPS for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date was Friday, May 29th. This represents a $4.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.2%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.