Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Takes $10.30 Million Position in AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 446,157 shares of the mining company’s stock, valued at approximately $10,297,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Sprott Inc. raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Sprott Inc. now owns 91,168 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $2,104,000 after acquiring an additional 662 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 210.6% during the 4th quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 1,174 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 796 shares during the last quarter. Rhumbline Advisers raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 9.3% during the 4th quarter. Rhumbline Advisers now owns 10,745 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $248,000 after acquiring an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 17.6% during the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,043 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $163,000 after acquiring an additional 1,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cigna Investments Inc. New raised its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 17.0% during the 4th quarter. Cigna Investments Inc. New now owns 9,581 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $214,000 after acquiring an additional 1,390 shares during the last quarter. 36.09% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AU has been the subject of several analyst reports. Scotiabank upped their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $30.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 target price on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $37.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 6th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $34.00.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Performance

NYSE AU opened at $35.43 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.87 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.07 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.73, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46. The business’s 50 day moving average is $30.78 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.90. AngloGold Ashanti plc has a 12-month low of $21.23 and a 12-month high of $36.69.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The mining company reported $0.89 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.75 billion. Research analysts expect that AngloGold Ashanti plc will post 3.83 EPS for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a semi-annual dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 28th. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.69 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.8%. This is a boost from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.22. AngloGold Ashanti’s dividend payout ratio is currently 43.13%.

About AngloGold Ashanti

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.