AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $1.16

AngloGold Ashanti PLC (NYSE:AU) announced a quarterly dividend on Friday, May 8th. Stockholders of record on Friday, May 29th will be given a dividend of 1.16 per share by the mining company on Friday, June 12th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, May 29th. This is a 570.5% increase from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17.

AngloGold Ashanti has increased its dividend payment by an average of 1.0%per year over the last three years. AngloGold Ashanti has a dividend payout ratio of 216.3% meaning the company cannot currently cover its dividend with earnings alone and is relying on its balance sheet to cover its dividend payments. Analysts expect AngloGold Ashanti to earn $8.76 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $6.92 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 79.0%.

AngloGold Ashanti Price Performance

Shares of AU stock traded up $6.91 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $107.14. The company had a trading volume of 2,727,823 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,949,501. AngloGold Ashanti has a 12 month low of $38.61 and a 12 month high of $129.14. The firm has a market capitalization of $54.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.64 and a beta of 0.60. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $101.71 and its 200 day moving average is $93.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.20, a quick ratio of 2.20 and a current ratio of 2.87.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 20th. The mining company reported $1.90 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $1.90. AngloGold Ashanti had a return on equity of 29.11% and a net margin of 26.65%.The company had revenue of $3.07 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.99 billion. On average, sell-side analysts predict that AngloGold Ashanti will post 8.79 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on AU. Wall Street Zen upgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 2nd. Zacks Research downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 23rd. Roth Mkm reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $122.00 price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research report on Friday, February 20th. Citigroup upped their price objective on AngloGold Ashanti from $105.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, May 1st. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $112.20.

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.