HighPoint Advisor Group LLC Buys New Shares in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 11,175 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $215,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its holdings in AES by 145.2% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 145,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,793,000 after buying an additional 85,926 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 70.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. Neo Ivy Capital Management acquired a new stake in AES during the 4th quarter worth about $184,000. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of AES by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 15,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $295,000 after buying an additional 1,678 shares during the last quarter. Finally, BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 28.3% in the 4th quarter. BlueCrest Capital Management Ltd now owns 119,627 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,303,000 after buying an additional 26,355 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $18.47 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $19.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.01. The company has a market cap of $13.13 billion, a PE ratio of 25.65 and a beta of 1.11. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.43 and a 1-year high of $22.60.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share 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 analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. AES had a return on equity of 36.23% and a net margin of 4.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.22 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of several recent research reports. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price target on AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.50.

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.