Ellsworth Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC boosted its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 21.5% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,595 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 12,155 shares during the quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,376,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after buying an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of AES during the 1st quarter valued at $123,272,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its position in AES by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,805,000 after purchasing an additional 141,565 shares during the period. Finally, Douglas Lane & Associates LLC lifted its stake in AES by 2.7% in the first quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 3,559,999 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $63,831,000 after purchasing an additional 91,990 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays dropped their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.43.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $17.26 on Friday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $17.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.35. The stock has a market cap of $12.26 billion, a PE ratio of 23.97 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $13.55 and a 12 month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.00%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

AES Profile

The AES Corporation, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a diversified power generation and utility company in the United States and internationally. The company owns and/or operates power plants to generate and sell power to customers, such as utilities, industrial users, and other intermediaries; owns and/or operates utilities to generate or purchase, distribute, transmit, and sell electricity to end-user customers in the residential, commercial, industrial, and governmental sectors; and generates and sells electricity on the wholesale market.