Foundry Partners LLC Increases Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Foundry Partners LLC raised its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 23.5% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 975,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 185,873 shares during the quarter. AES makes up approximately 1.0% of Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 25th largest holding. Foundry Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $19,569,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AES. Sei Investments Co. raised its stake in AES by 25.1% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 62,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,117,000 after purchasing an additional 12,510 shares during the period. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth $189,000. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in AES by 672.0% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 63,662 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 55,416 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its stake in AES by 28.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 10,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $188,000 after acquiring an additional 2,290 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co lifted its stake in shares of AES by 0.5% in the 1st quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 205,127 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,679,000 after purchasing an additional 1,003 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently commented on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Barclays raised their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.38.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $13.28 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $13.16 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.44 billion, a PE ratio of 9.22 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $17.06 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.98.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.20%. AES’s payout ratio is 47.92%.

AES Company 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.