Intact Investment Management Inc. Purchases 49,250 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Intact Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 13.4% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 415,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 49,250 shares during the quarter. Intact Investment Management Inc. owned 0.06% of AES worth $5,349,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,667,000 after acquiring an additional 28,043 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc increased its holdings in shares of AES by 97.4% in the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 86,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,736,000 after purchasing an additional 42,707 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AES by 3.9% in the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,596,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,016,000 after purchasing an additional 59,735 shares during the last quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 8.4% during the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 104,521 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,097,000 after purchasing an additional 8,061 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 8.0% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,000 after buying an additional 830 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $12.32 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.55, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.25 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.18.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. On average, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.71%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

AES Company 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.