Principal Financial Group Inc. Raises Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 3.5% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 28,043 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $16,667,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in AES in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new position in AES in the third quarter worth about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in AES by 102.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in AES in the second quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its stake in AES by 59.1% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Trading Down 0.7 %

NYSE AES opened at $12.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $9.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.85, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01. 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 AES Co. has a 12-month low of $12.24 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.65.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.52%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of several analyst reports. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective for the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. Mizuho decreased their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued 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 stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.30.

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.