B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Acquires New Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG purchased a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor purchased 128,279 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,573,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new position in shares of AES in the second quarter valued at $30,746,000. Zimmer Partners LP increased its position in AES by 482.8% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,865,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,439,000 after purchasing an additional 1,545,000 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 169.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,002,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348,195 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,898,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,293,000 after acquiring an additional 844,888 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. lifted its position in AES by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 2,639,694 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $46,379,000 after acquiring an additional 828,840 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AES shares. 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 for the company. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho lowered their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.38.

AES Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $13.24 on Friday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.95. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $13.04 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The firm has a market cap of $9.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.19 and a beta of 1.10. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.21%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES’s payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

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.