Inspire Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Inspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 6.1% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 28,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,614 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $507,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Capital World Investors lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after purchasing an additional 31,009,718 shares during the last quarter. 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 worth $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in AES by 3.8% during the 4th quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 69,671,801 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,341,277,000 after purchasing an additional 2,537,128 shares during the period. Verition Fund Management LLC increased its position in AES by 1,635.8% during the 4th quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 1,496,930 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $28,816,000 after purchasing an additional 1,410,689 shares during the period. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 3,298.7% in the 1st quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 575,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $10,317,000 after acquiring an additional 558,465 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AES. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Mizuho boosted their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.88.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES traded up $0.42 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $17.42. The company had a trading volume of 3,490,852 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,104,012. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $19.57 and its 200 day moving average is $17.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.38 billion, a PE ratio of 23.61 and a beta of 1.09. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $22.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.78.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.22 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.96%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

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.