abrdn plc Grows Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

abrdn plc increased its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 25.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 386,712 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 77,662 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc owned approximately 0.05% of AES worth $7,775,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its position in shares of AES by 161.8% during the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after buying an additional 66,145 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in AES by 1.9% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,237,000 after acquiring an additional 2,273 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 735.2% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $11,070,000 after purchasing an additional 543,464 shares during the last quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. lifted its holdings 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 valued at $15,049,000 after purchasing an additional 140,610 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 178.5% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 689,879 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,369,000 after purchasing an additional 442,184 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Down 9.7 %

AES stock opened at $14.71 on Friday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $14.68 and a one year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The company has a fifty day moving average of $17.85 and a 200-day moving average of $18.27. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.46 billion, a PE ratio of 10.22 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current 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 4.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.92%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have commented on AES. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.57.

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.