Natixis Advisors LLC Boosts Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Natixis Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 21.5% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 66,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 11,828 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,173,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of AES. Apollon Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $215,000. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 13.0% in the fourth quarter. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. now owns 7,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $135,000 after buying an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $57,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of AES by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,559,517 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,273,000 after buying an additional 10,002 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 146,117 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,813,000 after buying an additional 30,287 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on AES. Mizuho upped their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.50.

AES Trading Up 8.6 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $17.86 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $12.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.81 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.43 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.86.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.86%. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

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.