Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. Invests $2.96 Million in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. bought a new position in shares of AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 34,700 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,961,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT bought a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 454.1% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 471 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 386 shares during the period. Ancora Advisors LLC bought a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti in the 3rd quarter valued at about $35,000. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 33.4% in the 3rd quarter. CIBC Private Wealth Group LLC now owns 599 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $42,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC bought a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti in the 4th quarter valued at about $56,000. 36.09% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AU. Zacks Research cut AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Scotiabank reduced their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a “sector outperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 20th. Wall Street Zen lowered AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Saturday, June 6th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $114.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Up 3.7%

Shares of NYSE AU opened at $86.26 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.65 and a beta of 0.60. The business has a 50-day moving average of $97.02 and a 200-day moving average of $97.19. The company has a current ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 2.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.19. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a 12 month low of $43.44 and a 12 month high of $129.14.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last issued its earnings results on Friday, May 8th. The mining company reported $2.52 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.27 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $3.24 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.26 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 36.41% and a net margin of 31.11%. Sell-side analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 9.26 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 paid a $1.16 dividend. This is an increase from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $4.64 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, May 29th. AngloGold Ashanti’s payout ratio 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.