Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in AngloGold Ashanti PLC $AU

Key Points

• Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC cut its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 49.8% in Q4, selling 41,343 shares and leaving 41,606 shares valued at about $3.55 million.
• Major institutions added to positions—Vanguard now owns 23,001,047 shares (~$1.98B) and VanEck 19,847,932 shares (~$1.40B)—with institutional investors holding 36.09% of the stock.
• Analysts give AngloGold Ashanti a consensus “Moderate Buy” with an average target of $112.20; the stock trades near $98 (52‑week range $38.61–$129.14), recent quarter met EPS and the company paid a quarterly dividend of $0.173 (annualized yield 0.7%) with a payout ratio of 133.33%.

Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC lowered its position in AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU - Free Report) by 49.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 41,606 shares of the mining company's stock after selling 41,343 shares during the quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC's holdings in AngloGold Ashanti were worth $3,548,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,001,047 shares of the mining company's stock worth $1,979,174,000 after buying an additional 252,307 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 10.0% in the third quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 19,847,932 shares of the mining company's stock worth $1,395,905,000 after buying an additional 1,804,620 shares in the last quarter. Ninety One SA Pty Ltd purchased a new stake in AngloGold Ashanti in the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,380,472,000. State Street Corp boosted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 14.9% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,705,516 shares of the mining company's stock worth $401,269,000 after buying an additional 738,343 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in AngloGold Ashanti by 5.9% in the third quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 5,136,739 shares of the mining company's stock worth $361,310,000 after buying an additional 284,017 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 36.09% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on AU. Scotiabank cut their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $134.00 to $133.00 and set a "sector outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 20th. Zacks Research lowered AngloGold Ashanti from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, February 23rd. Citigroup upped their target price on AngloGold Ashanti from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Weiss Ratings raised AngloGold Ashanti from a "hold (c+)" rating to a "buy (b-)" rating in a research note on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered AngloGold Ashanti from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, March 28th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $112.20.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Performance

NYSE:AU opened at $98.14 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $49.55 billion, a PE ratio of 18.91 and a beta of 0.66. AngloGold Ashanti PLC has a fifty-two week low of $38.61 and a fifty-two week high of $129.14. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.87. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $104.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $92.78.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 20th. The mining company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90. The firm had revenue of $3.07 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 29.11% and a net margin of 26.65%. Equities research analysts predict that AngloGold Ashanti PLC will post 8.78 earnings per share for the current year.

AngloGold Ashanti Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 27th. Investors of record on Friday, March 13th were paid a $0.173 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. AngloGold Ashanti's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 133.33%.

AngloGold Ashanti 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.

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