The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Purchased by AlphaQuest LLC

AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 18,047.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,136 shares during the period. AlphaQuest LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $79,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of AES. State Street Corp grew its stake in AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $33,964,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in AES by 30.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after acquiring an additional 892,500 shares in the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at $17,390,000. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC increased its position 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 worth $32,031,000 after purchasing an additional 553,311 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Barclays decreased their price objective 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, Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.30.

AES Trading Up 0.4 %

AES stock opened at $12.98 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.01, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $11.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $14.03.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.42%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

AES 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.