Wallace Advisory Group LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Wallace Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 8.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 24,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares during the period. Wallace Advisory Group LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $311,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AES by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $330,125,000 after purchasing an additional 181,975 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after purchasing an additional 82,956 shares during the period. M&G PLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its holdings in AES by 30.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $77,000,000 after buying an additional 892,500 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho lowered their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC began coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $11.71 on Tuesday. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.57 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $8.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.13, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. 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 company’s 50-day moving average price is $13.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.11.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.01%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s payout ratio is currently 48.61%.

About AES

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.