AGF Management Ltd. Increases Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

AGF Management Ltd. lifted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 202.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 85,210 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 57,019 shares during the quarter. AGF Management Ltd.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,097,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 8.0% in the 3rd 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 period. Rockland Trust Co. increased its stake in AES by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $683,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Finally, River Street Advisors LLC increased its stake in AES by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 18,240 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $366,000 after buying an additional 1,373 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of several research reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays cut their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Stock Up 0.3 %

AES stock opened at $12.32 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average is $11.25 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.18. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $9.88 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $8.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.55, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during 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 period in the previous year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. 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 (DPR) is 29.54%.

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.