Vanguard Group Inc. Raises Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 2.2% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned about 12.63% of AES worth $1,608,773,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. CX Institutional acquired a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth approximately $70,000. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 11.8% during the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 73,923 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,423,000 after purchasing an additional 7,813 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at $299,000. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd increased its stake in AES by 37.2% in the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 79,983 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,540,000 after purchasing an additional 21,688 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in AES during the fourth quarter worth about $73,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.34 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $17.44. The company had a trading volume of 3,662,951 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,095,496. The company has a market capitalization of $12.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.04 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.78. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $22.60. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $19.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.87.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion during 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%. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.96%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, March 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.75.

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.