Czech National Bank Boosts Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 6.9% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 144,822 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,398 shares during the quarter. Czech National Bank’s holdings in AES were worth $2,905,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of AES. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in AES by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in shares of AES by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in AES by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after buying an additional 2,670,001 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in AES by 3.1% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after buying an additional 141,565 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $17.32 on Friday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $12.87 and a one year high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $12.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.06 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $17.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.36. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.98%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on AES shares. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.43.

AES Company 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.