Wellington Management Group LLP Increases Stock Holdings in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) by 8.7% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,930,737 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 154,726 shares during the quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP’s holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $156,214,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of AU. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new position in AngloGold Ashanti during the 2nd quarter worth $19,078,000. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the second quarter valued at about $30,000. Ninepoint Partners LP bought a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the second quarter valued at about $6,030,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in AngloGold Ashanti during the second quarter worth about $100,848,000. Finally, Handelsbanken Fonder AB boosted its holdings in AngloGold Ashanti by 26.7% during the second quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 202,909 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $16,413,000 after purchasing an additional 42,714 shares during the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on AU. Citigroup decreased their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 15th. Wall Street Zen lowered AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Roth Capital dropped their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $121.00 to $110.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, June 24th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have issued a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AngloGold Ashanti presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $110.50.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Performance

NYSE:AU opened at $112.29 on Tuesday. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 1 year low of $55.08 and a 1 year high of $129.14. 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 business has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.93 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $96.22. The company has a market capitalization of $56.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.05 and a beta of 0.66.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 30th. The mining company reported $1.98 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.03 by ($0.05). The business had revenue of $3.10 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.20 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 39.54% and a net margin of 32.19%. On average, analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.14 earnings per share for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Cuts Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, September 4th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 21st will be paid a $0.72 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 21st. This represents a $2.88 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.6%. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 6.70%.

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.