Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. Buys 3,216 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 18.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 20,884 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,216 shares during the period. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $269,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Stephens Inc. AR grew its holdings in AES by 67.1% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,273,000 after purchasing an additional 133,308 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd bought a new stake in AES in the 4th quarter valued at about $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its stake in shares of AES by 47.1% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 23,764 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently commented on AES. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays cut their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $16.63.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $12.45 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $11.34 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.88. The company has a market cap of $8.86 billion, a PE ratio of 8.64, 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.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released 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 analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is currently 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.