Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Purchases 444,252 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 16.5% during the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 444,252 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP owned approximately 0.44% of AES worth $55,084,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of AES by 161.8% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 66,145 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,237,000 after purchasing an additional 2,273 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 735.2% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,070,000 after purchasing an additional 543,464 shares during the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth $1,235,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 20.1% during the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 839,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,049,000 after purchasing an additional 140,610 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. Barclays decreased 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. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $21.50.

AES Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $20.07 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $14.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.88 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $17.64 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.15.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were paid a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

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.