Rockland Trust Co. Acquires 2,505 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Rockland Trust Co. increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 20.2% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,900 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,505 shares during the quarter. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in AES were worth $299,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AES. Czech National Bank grew its position in AES by 6.9% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 144,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,905,000 after purchasing an additional 9,398 shares in the last quarter. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new position in AES during the 2nd quarter worth $804,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in AES in the 2nd quarter worth about $567,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its position in shares of AES by 32.7% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 100,516 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,766,000 after buying an additional 24,764 shares in the last quarter. Finally, B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $179,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.22 on Friday, reaching $18.91. 10,668,366 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,167,876. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $13.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.26 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day moving average of $17.86 and a 200-day moving average of $18.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 95.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

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.