AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) Plans Semi-annual Dividend of $0.69

AngloGold Ashanti plc (NYSE:AU) announced a semi-annual dividend on Thursday, February 20th, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.69 per share by the mining company on Friday, March 28th. This represents a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from AngloGold Ashanti’s previous semi-annual dividend of $0.22.

AngloGold Ashanti has a payout ratio of 13.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect AngloGold Ashanti to earn $3.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.44 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 11.5%.

AngloGold Ashanti Stock Up 3.1 %

NYSE:AU traded up $0.97 on Thursday, reaching $32.02. The stock had a trading volume of 3,739,108 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,486,770. AngloGold Ashanti has a 12-month low of $17.01 and a 12-month high of $33.77. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $27.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $27.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.46, a current ratio of 1.73 and a quick ratio of 1.14.

AngloGold Ashanti (NYSE:AU) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The mining company reported $0.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.99 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.75 billion. On average, analysts anticipate that AngloGold Ashanti will post 2.81 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded AngloGold Ashanti from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of AngloGold Ashanti from $37.00 to $32.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 6th. Scotiabank raised shares of AngloGold Ashanti from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $30.00 price target for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $36.00 price target on shares of AngloGold Ashanti in a research note on Thursday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AngloGold Ashanti has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.00.

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.