ProShare Advisors LLC Acquires 18,559 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

ProShare Advisors LLC raised its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 12.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 167,754 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 18,559 shares during the quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $3,008,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. US Bancorp DE grew its holdings in shares of AES by 99.7% in the 1st quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 64,645 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,159,000 after purchasing an additional 32,272 shares during the last quarter. Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth about $3,066,000. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth about $72,000. Inspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 6.1% in the 1st quarter. Inspire Advisors LLC now owns 28,250 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $507,000 after purchasing an additional 1,614 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth about $490,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AES. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of AES from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.88.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock opened at $17.08 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $22.60. The company has a market cap of $12.14 billion, a PE ratio of 23.72 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s 50-day moving average is $19.44 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.90.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.04%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 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.