Advisors Asset Management Inc. Increases Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 87.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 221,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 103,601 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,855,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new position in shares of AES in the third quarter valued at $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 190.3% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of AES in the third quarter valued at $63,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in AES by 18,047.1% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,000 after buying an additional 6,136 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.07 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.88 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The business has a 50-day moving average of $11.28 and a 200 day moving average of $13.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on AES. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. HSBC began coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Mizuho reduced their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

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.