AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by Wall Street Zen

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) was downgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Friday.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on AU. Scotiabank raised their price target on AngloGold Ashanti from $90.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “sector outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 28th. Citigroup began coverage on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a report on Monday, October 27th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $90.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Roth Capital set a $76.00 price target on shares of AngloGold Ashanti and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $69.50.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Down 4.0%

Shares of AU traded down $3.58 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $85.33. The company had a trading volume of 4,580,505 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,158,906. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.22, a quick ratio of 2.22 and a current ratio of 2.99. The company has a market capitalization of $35.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.69 and a beta of 0.48. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $73.77 and a 200 day moving average price of $58.88. AngloGold Ashanti has a 52 week low of $22.45 and a 52 week high of $89.19.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 11th. The mining company reported $1.32 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.34 by ($0.02). The company had revenue of $2.37 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.53 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a net margin of 23.60% and a return on equity of 22.54%. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that AngloGold Ashanti will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers purchased a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti in the first quarter worth approximately $1,162,000. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 162,415 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $6,029,000 after buying an additional 4,149 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 84.2% during the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 127,220 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $4,722,000 after buying an additional 58,169 shares during the period. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych Allianz Polska S.A. boosted its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. Towarzystwo Funduszy Inwestycyjnych Allianz Polska S.A. now owns 26,200 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $984,000 after buying an additional 1,200 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,002,449 shares of the mining company’s stock worth $787,791,000 after buying an additional 145,125 shares during the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AngloGold Ashanti Company Profile

AngloGold Ashanti plc operates as a gold mining company in Africa, Australia, and the Americas. The company primarily explores for gold, as well as produces silver and sulphuric acid as by-products. Its flagship property is a 100% owned Geita mine located in the Lake Victoria goldfields of the Mwanza region in north-western Tanzania.