Share count
508Mpeak FY2025
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AU, AngloGold Ashanti PLC
AngloGold Ashanti plc is an independent, global gold mining company with a diverse portfolio of operations, projects and exploration activities across 10 countries on four continents.
Once mined, the gold ore is processed into dor (unrefined gold bars) on site and then dispatched to precious metals refineries for refining to a purity of at least 99.5%, in accordance with the standards of good delivery' as determined by the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA).
By-products of our gold mining operations, often a function of local geological characteristics, include silver in Argentina and sulphuric acid in Brazil.
The business
What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.
Revenue · FY2025
$9.9B
+70.8% YoY · 25% 4-yr CAGR
Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average
Revenue $9.9B 5-yr avg $5.8B
The business in brief
read the 10-K →What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.
- Situation
- Cyclical. Margins collapse and recover repeatedly across the record; a single year, good or bad, misstates the through-cycle earning power.
- What moves the needle
- Gross margin has run about 29% and operating margin about 26% through the cycle, a spread the cycle sets more than the company does. The margin is cyclical, swinging between 3.8% and 44% over the years, so the through-cycle figure carries more than any single year — and the balance sheet at the trough more than the peak. Capital spending runs about 23% of sales, well above depreciation, so the return earned on what it sinks into that plant weighs as much as the margin. Read this kind of business on the commodity price and the cost position. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on supplier & input dependence, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
- Is it a good business?
- Return on capital has run in the teens (median 15%, above 15% in 2 of 5 years). Owner earnings agree: roughly 21% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Returns like these are solid but short of clear franchise economics; whether they hold is what the 10-K settles, not the multiple.
Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.
The record
Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.
The record, 2021–2025
realized figures from each filing · older years to the left| 2021’21 | 2022’22 | 2023’23 | 2024’24 | 2025’25 | TTMTTMDec 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Income statement | ||||||
| $4.0B | $4.5B | $4.6B | $5.8B | $9.9B | $9.9B | RevenueRevenue |
| 29% | 25% | 23% | 36% | 49% | 49% | Gross marginGross mgn |
| $1.1B | $574M | $176M | $1.8B | $4.4B | $1.5B | Operating incomeOp. inc. |
| 26.3% | 12.8% | 3.8% | 31.0% | 44.4% | 14.7% | Operating marginOp. mgn |
| $638M | $251M | ($222M) | $1.0B | $3.2B | $233M | Net incomeNet inc. |
| 33% | 47% | — | 37% | 26% | — | Effective tax rateTax rate |
| Cash flow & returns | ||||||
| $1.3B | $1.8B | $971M | $2.0B | $4.8B | $4.8B | Operating cash flowOp. cash |
| $476M | $636M | $657M | $751M | $1.3B | $1.3B | DepreciationDeprec. |
| $154M | $917M | $536M | $168M | $324M | $3.3B | Working capital & otherWC & other |
| $1.0B | $1.0B | $1.0B | $1.1B | $1.4B | $1.0B | CapexCapex |
| 25.5% | 22.8% | 22.7% | 18.8% | 14.6% | 10.6% | Capex / revenueCapex/rev |
| $792M | $1.2B | $314M | $1.2B | $3.3B | $3.7B | Owner earningsOwner earn. |
| 19.7% | 25.9% | 6.9% | 21.0% | 33.7% | 37.8% | Owner earnings marginOE mgn |
| $240M | $776M | ($71M) | $878M | $3.3B | $3.7B | Free cash flowFCF |
| 6.0% | 17.2% | −1.5% | 15.2% | 33.7% | 37.8% | Free cash flow marginFCF mgn |
| $240M | $203M | $107M | $244M | $1.3B | $244M | Dividends paidDiv. paid |
| 15% | 6% | 2% | 16% | 45% | 10% | ROICROIC |
| 16% | 6% | -6% | 16% | 39% | 3% | Return on equityROE |
| 10% | 1% | −9% | 12% | 23% | −0% | Retained to equityRetained/eq |
| Balance sheet | ||||||
| $1.2B | $1.1B | $964M | $1.4B | $2.9B | $2.9B | Cash & investmentsCash+inv |
| $257M | $237M | $193M | $356M | $426M | $426M | ReceivablesReceiv. |
| $703M | $773M | $829M | $1.1B | $1.1B | $1.1B | InventoryInvent. |
| $600M | $667M | $772M | $957M | $1.0B | $1.0B | Accounts payablePayables |
| $360M | $343M | $250M | $454M | $501M | $501M | Operating working capitalOper. WC |
| $2.1B | $2.1B | $2.2B | $3.1B | $4.6B | $4.6B | Current assetsCur. assets |
| $827M | $884M | $1.3B | $1.5B | $1.6B | $1.6B | Current liabilitiesCur. liab. |
| 2.6× | 2.4× | 1.7× | 2.0× | 2.9× | 2.9× | Current ratioCurr. ratio |
| $8.0B | $8.0B | $8.3B | $13.2B | $15.1B | $15.1B | Total assetsAssets |
| $1.9B | $2.0B | $2.0B | $1.9B | $2.0B | $2.0B | Total debtDebt |
| $704M | $857M | $1.1B | $476M | ($880M) | ($880M) | Net debt / (cash)Net debt |
| 9.7× | 5.6× | 1.6× | 14.8× | 37.9× | 12.5× | Interest coverageInt. cov. |
| $4.0B | $4.0B | $3.7B | $6.6B | $8.1B | $8.1B | Shareholders’ equityEquity |
| Per share | ||||||
| 420M | 420M | 421M | 430M | 508M | 508M | Shares out (diluted)Shares |
| $9.60 | $10.71 | $10.88 | $13.47 | $19.46 | $19.46 | Revenue / shareRev/sh |
| $1.52 | $0.60 | $-0.53 | $2.44 | $6.24 | $0.46 | EPS (diluted)EPS |
| $1.89 | $2.78 | $0.75 | $2.83 | $6.56 | $7.35 | Owner earnings / shareOE/sh |
| $0.57 | $1.85 | $-0.17 | $2.04 | $6.56 | $7.35 | Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh |
| $0.57 | $0.48 | $0.25 | $0.57 | $2.52 | $0.48 | Dividends / shareDiv/sh |
| $2.45 | $2.45 | $2.47 | $2.53 | $2.85 | $2.06 | Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh |
| $9.64 | $9.61 | $8.81 | $15.41 | $15.92 | $15.92 | Book value / shareBVPS |
Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded
| 4-yr | 5-yr | |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue / share | +19.3%/yr | +19.3%/yr (4-yr) |
| Owner earnings / share | +36.6%/yr | +36.6%/yr (4-yr) |
| EPS | +42.4%/yr | +42.4%/yr (4-yr) |
| Dividends / share | +44.9%/yr | +44.9%/yr (4-yr) |
| Capital spending / share | +3.9%/yr | +3.9%/yr (4-yr) |
| Book value / share | +13.4%/yr | +13.4%/yr (4-yr) |
The record, charted
FY2021–2025Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.
ROIC
45%low FY2023
Gross margin
49%low FY2023
Owner earnings vs. net income
Owner earningsNet incomeThe accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.
$3.3Bowner earningsvs.$3.2Bnet incomelow FY2023
Where the cash went
ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedEach year's operating cash, by what management did with it: the mix, and how it drifts.
FY2021FY2025
Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.
In fiscal 2025 the business turned $3.2B of profit into $3.3B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.
| FY2025 | FY2024 | FY2023 | FY2022 | FY2021 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reported net income | $3.2B | $1.0B | ($222M) | $251M | $638M |
| Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back | +$1.3B | +$751M | +$657M | +$636M | +$476M |
| Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items | +$324M | +$168M | +$536M | +$917M | +$154M |
| Cash from operations | $4.8B | $2.0B | $971M | $1.8B | $1.3B |
| Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume | −$1.4B | −$751M | −$657M | −$636M | −$476M |
| Owner earnings | $3.3B | $1.2B | $314M | $1.2B | $792M |
| Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still | — | −$339M | −$385M | −$392M | −$552M |
| Free cash flow | $3.3B | $878M | ($71M) | $776M | $240M |
| Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue | 34% | 21% | 7% | 26% | 20% |
Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position .
Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.
Quality & stewardship
Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.
Owner’s Scorecard
FY2025 20-F · source on SEC EDGAR →
Material weakness in financial controls
“T he Company has identified a material weakness that caused its disclosure controls and procedures, and its internal control over financial reporting, to be ineffective as of 31 December 2025.”
The figures below are only as sound as the controls that produced them. read the note →
Will it survive?
- Can it pay its interest? 12.5×ComfortableOperating income $1.5B ÷ interest expense $116M
What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
- Net cashCash $2.9B − debt $2.0B
What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $880M, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
- TightDSO 16 + DIO 78 − DPO 73 days
What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.
Is it a good business?
- Solid through the cycle5-yr median, range 2%–45%; 10% latest = NOPAT $726M ÷ invested capital $7.2BIndustry peers: median 4%
What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 5 years (it ran 10% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
- High through the cycle5-yr median margin, range 7%–34%; latest $3.7B = operating cash $4.8B − maintenance capex $1.0BIndustry peers: median 9%
What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 38% of revenue this year, a 21% median across 5 years.
- Are earnings backed by cash? 20.53×Cash-backedCash from ops $4.8B ÷ net income $233M
In the filing’s words The filing discloses a material weakness in its financial controls — the reported numbers here, and the record built on them, are only as reliable as the controls that produced them.
What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.
How is the cash used?
- Reinvests most of itDividends + buybacks $244M ÷ Owner Earnings $3.7B
What this means
Of $3.7B Owner Earnings, $244M (7%) went back to shareholders, $244M dividends, $0 buybacks. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
- Investing or harvesting? 0.81×MaintainingCapex $1.0B ÷ depreciation $1.3B
What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.
Graham’s defensive tests · 4 of 5 met
Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.
- Adequate size PassRevenue ≥ $2B · $9.9B
What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
- Strong liquidity PassCurrent ratio ≥ 2× · 2.87×
What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
- Conservative debt PassDebt ≤ working capital · $2.0B vs $3.0B WC
What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
- Earnings stability NearA profit every year (5-yr record) · 1 loss year
What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
- Dividend record PassUninterrupted dividends · paid every year (5)
What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
- Moderate price —P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price
What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $2.64/share (latest year $0.46), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $16.02/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.
Durability & moat, 2021–2025
Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.
- Profitable years 4 of 5
What this means
Lost money in 1 year(s), look at what happened there before trusting the average.
- Return on capital ≥ 15% 2 of 5 yrs
What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
- Operating margin 20% → 38% (2-yr avg ends)
In the filing’s words The record and the words agree: the margin widened and the filing attributes the gain to its own pricing, not volume alone.
What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 20% early to 38% lately, median 26% — pricing power intact or improving.
- Reinvestment, incremental ROIC —
What this means
The reinvested base moved too little against the change in profit to read a reliable return on it here — the figure would be a small-denominator artifact, not a moat. Judge this one on the owner-earnings record and the cash it returns instead.
- Owner earnings growth +23%/yr
What this means
Owner earnings grew about 23% a year over the record.
- Worst year 2023 · 3.8% op. margin
What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
- Share count +4.9%/yr
What this means
The share count is rising, dilution works against you on a per-share basis.
- Dividend record rising
What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.
Does AI threaten the moat?
Low contestabilityThe moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.
In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor
The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product; it frames AI mainly as a capability.
AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.
Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.
All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.
Current Position
as of fiscal year-end, Dec 31, 2025Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.
Current assets$4.6B
- Cash & short-term investments$2.9B
- Receivables$426M
- Inventory$1.1B
- Other current assets$240M
Current liabilities$1.6B
- Accounts payable$1.0B
- Other current liabilities$619M
Current ratio2.87×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×
Quick ratio2.20×stricter: inventory excluded
Cash ratio1.79×strictest: cash alone against what's due
Working capital$3.0Bthe cushion left after near-term bills
Deeper floors
Tangible book value$8.1Bequity stripped of goodwill & intangibles
Net current asset value($515M)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities
Debt incl. operating leases$2.2B$214M of it operating leases
From the company's latest filing.
How the cash was used, 2021–2025
Over the record, the business generated $10.8B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a reinvestor, most operating cash is plowed back into the business.
- Reinvested$5.6B · 52%
- Dividends$2.1B · 19%
- Retained (debt / cash)$3.1B · 29%
- Returned to owners$2.1B
30% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $2.1B as dividends and $0 as buybacks.
- Net change in share count21.1%
The diluted count rose from 420M to 508M: issuance (stock pay, deals) outran any buybacks, so owners were diluted on net.
- Dividend record$2.52/sh
Paid in 5 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 45% a year. It was cut at least once along the way.
- Return on what it retained31%
Of the earnings it kept rather than paid out ($2.8B over the span), annual owner earnings (first three years vs last three) grew $864M, so each retained $1 added about 0.31 of yearly owner earnings. Buffett's test, run on owner earnings instead of market value.
Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.
Inverting the record
Invert: instead of why AngloGold Ashanti PLC is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2021–2025.
1 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.
- Look hereDid the share count rise anyway?21.1%
Diluted shares grew 21.1% over 2021–2025. Owners were diluted on net; each share owns less of the business than it did. Read the buyback line beside this one, not on its own.
And these came back clean
- Is it less profitable than it was?
- Did debt outgrow the business?
- Did reported profit become cash?
- Did receivables and inventory outpace sales?
Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.
Peers, Gold & Precious Metals
The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.
| Company | Revenue | Gross margin | Op. margin | ROIC | Owner earn. margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FCXFreeport-McMoRan Inc. | $25.2B | 29% | 25.5% | 15% | 13% |
| NEMNewmont Corporation | $22.7B | — | 12.0% | 4% | 19% |
| CLFCleveland-Cliffs | $18.6B | 14% | 8.4% | 16% | 9% |
| SCCOSouthern Copper Corporation | $13.4B | 52% | 41.5% | 18% | 24% |
| AUAngloGold Ashanti PLC | $9.9B | 29% | 26.3% | 15% | 21% |
| CDECoeur Mining Inc. | $2.1B | 79% | 4.3% | 2% | 2% |
| MUXMcEwen Inc. | $198M | 77% | -43.0% | -9% | -7% |
| IAUXi-80 Gold Corp. | $95M | — | -177.0% | -15% | -157% |
| Group median | — | 41% | 10.2% | 9% | 11% |
The price
What a price has to assume.
What the price implies
reverse-DCFEnter the home-market price, not the US ADR quote. AngloGold Ashanti PLC reports in USD, and every figure here (owner earnings, book value, the share count) is on that ordinary-share basis. Enter the price on the same basis: the local-exchange quote per ordinary share. A US ADR price in dollars bundles the ADR-to-ordinary ratio, so it will not reconcile with these figures and would throw the multiple off.
Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what AngloGold Ashanti PLC has delivered.
AngloGold Ashanti PLC’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.
$
Through the cycle, AngloGold Ashanti PLC earns about $2.1B on its 21.0% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 37.8% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.
Base
—
The assumptions
9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.
Enter a price above to run it.
A dated snapshot of the price you typed, the assumptions you set, and what the page showed for them. A snapshot is never edited after it is saved. Your notebook is yours alone — the commitment states what is stored and what we will never do.
Implied by the price—
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+43%/yr
Owner-earnings growth · ’21→’25+23%/yr
Owner-earnings yield—
What a growth belief costs, in multiples
The growth each return requires, at your price
P/E (3-yr earnings ’23–’25)—
P/B—
Graham’s price gate—
Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.
Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%
Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.
Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.
Owner-earnings yield—
High-grade bond yield—
Margin over the bond—
Owner earnings $3.7B on 505M shares outstanding, per the 20-F cover, as of 2025-12-31; net cash $880M. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.
Cite: Owner Scorecard, "AngloGold Ashanti PLC (AU), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/AU, data as of 2026-07-09.
Manual order: ← ATS its page in the Manual AUDC →
Industry order: ← ARIS the Gold & Precious Metals chapter B →