Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Buys 1,575 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 0.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 222,539 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,575 shares during the period. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,864,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of AES by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in AES by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $330,125,000 after purchasing an additional 181,975 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of AES by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,259 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $88,536,000 after purchasing an additional 185,020 shares in the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT purchased a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,083,000. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in shares of AES by 5.5% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,756,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $61,220,000 after purchasing an additional 249,486 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms have commented on AES. Mizuho dropped their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.63.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock opened at $12.49 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $8.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.67, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $11.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.71.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

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.