The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Bought by Jones Financial Companies Lllp

Jones Financial Companies Lllp raised its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 83.0% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 15,124 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,860 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp’s holdings in AES were worth $195,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AES. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after acquiring an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its holdings in shares of AES by 30.3% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after purchasing an additional 892,500 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new position in shares of AES in the 3rd quarter valued at about $17,390,000. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 53.0% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,596,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,031,000 after purchasing an additional 553,311 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,961,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,989,000 after purchasing an additional 439,493 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on AES shares. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays dropped their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $12.30 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.74 billion, a PE ratio of 8.54, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $9.88 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.19.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.72%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.54%.

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.