iSAM Funds UK Ltd Invests $362,000 in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

iSAM Funds UK Ltd acquired a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 18,026 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $362,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 77.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after purchasing an additional 7,897 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC increased its position in shares of AES by 2.4% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the period. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in AES by 15.0% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 135,424 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,379,000 after purchasing an additional 17,618 shares during the period. Securian Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in AES by 3.6% during the 2nd quarter. Securian Asset Management Inc. now owns 40,863 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $718,000 after purchasing an additional 1,423 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in AES by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $222,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AES. Barclays boosted their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.22.

AES Stock Down 1.8 %

AES stock opened at $13.05 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.06, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 1.01. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $15.60 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.38. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $12.53 and a twelve month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.39%. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.92%.

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.