Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) Stock Bumped Up to “Buy” by Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report issued on Sunday morning,Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on AUGO. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of Aura Minerals from $104.50 to $91.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 16th. Scotiabank started coverage on shares of Aura Minerals in a report on Thursday, September 17th. They set a “sector outperform” rating and a $110.00 price target on the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Aura Minerals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 7th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Aura Minerals from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Santander cut shares of Aura Minerals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Aura Minerals presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $86.95.

Aura Minerals Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:AUGO opened at $87.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 1.06 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Aura Minerals has a 1 year low of $29.11 and a 1 year high of $110.32. The company has a market cap of $7.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.63, a PEG ratio of 0.26 and a beta of 0.48. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $84.24 and its 200-day moving average price is $76.61.

Aura Minerals (NASDAQ:AUGO) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, June 30th. The company reported $2.57 EPS for the quarter. Aura Minerals had a return on equity of 103.62% and a net margin of 23.18%. The company had revenue of $335.97 million for the quarter. Sell-side analysts expect that Aura Minerals will post 5.98 earnings per share for the current year.

Aura Minerals Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 28th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, August 18th were paid a $0.72 dividend. This is a decrease from Aura Minerals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.78. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, August 18th. This represents a $2.88 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.3%. Aura Minerals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 81.36%.

Insider Activity at Aura Minerals

In related news, Director Mauad Sousa sold 166,000 shares of Aura Minerals stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 22nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.65, for a total value of $15,047,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 1,041 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $94,366.65. The trade was a 99.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Over the last three months, insiders acquired 263,011 shares of company stock valued at $22,662,070 and sold 1,568,065 shares valued at $133,318,052.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of AUGO. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Aura Minerals by 522.2% during the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 616 shares of the company’s stock valued at $48,000 after buying an additional 517 shares during the last quarter. Andra AP fonden bought a new position in Aura Minerals in the second quarter worth approximately $10,550,000. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in Aura Minerals by 56.7% in the second quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 13,305 shares of the company’s stock worth $838,000 after acquiring an additional 4,816 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LP bought a new position in Aura Minerals in the second quarter worth approximately $446,000. Finally, Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. boosted its stake in shares of Aura Minerals by 1,379.1% during the 2nd quarter. Absolute Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. now owns 55,467 shares of the company’s stock worth $3,492,000 after acquiring an additional 51,717 shares during the last quarter.

Aura Minerals Company Profile

Aura Minerals Inc is a mining company focused on the exploration, development and production of gold, copper and other associated minerals. The company operates a portfolio of mines and projects in the Americas and sells the metals produced from its operations to commercial customers.

Aura’s assets include the Aranzazu copper-gold-silver mine in Mexico, the San Andrés gold mine in Honduras, and gold operations in Brazil, including the Almas and Apoena complexes. The company also has development and exploration projects intended to support future production and extend the operating life of its portfolio.

Headquartered in the Americas and listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol AUGO, Aura Minerals has built its business through the acquisition, development and operation of precious- and base-metal assets.