Cetera Investment Advisers Acquires 24,764 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 32.7% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 100,516 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 24,764 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in AES were worth $1,766,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings 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 buying an additional 66,145 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,237,000 after purchasing an additional 2,273 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 735.2% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,070,000 after purchasing an additional 543,464 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $1,235,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in AES by 20.1% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 839,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,049,000 after purchasing an additional 140,610 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on AES. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.43.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $17.46 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $17.91 and a 200-day moving average of $18.36. The company has a market cap of $12.41 billion, a PE ratio of 24.25 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $13.16 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.95%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 95.83%.

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.