King Luther Capital Management Corp Makes New Investment in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

King Luther Capital Management Corp bought a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund bought 155,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,735,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in AES by 161.8% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after purchasing an additional 66,145 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in AES by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,237,000 after purchasing an additional 2,273 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 735.2% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,070,000 after acquiring an additional 543,464 shares during the period. New Century Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,235,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of 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 worth $15,049,000 after acquiring an additional 140,610 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $18.90 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.03. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

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.