Dark Forest Capital Management LP Increases Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Dark Forest Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 114.7% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 33,121 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,693 shares during the period. Dark Forest Capital Management LP’s holdings in AES were worth $582,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in AES by 97.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 595,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,462,000 after buying an additional 294,167 shares during the last quarter. Caxton Associates LP purchased a new position in AES in the 2nd quarter valued at about $177,000. ELCO Management Co. LLC boosted its position in AES by 100.0% in the 2nd quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 20,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $351,000 after buying an additional 10,000 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd boosted its position in AES by 19.7% in the 2nd quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 95,573 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,679,000 after buying an additional 15,743 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HITE Hedge Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in AES in the 2nd quarter valued at about $10,542,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

AES opened at $20.08 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $14.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.89 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $11.43 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $17.64 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.13. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.21 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 95.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on AES shares. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays cut their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus 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.