Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. Increases Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. increased its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 2.4% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 132,689 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,082 shares during the period. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,331,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $57,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its stake 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 valued at $49,273,000 after buying an additional 10,002 shares in the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC grew its holdings in AES by 60.7% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 14,306 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $275,000 after acquiring an additional 5,402 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. raised its position in AES by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 93,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,797,000 after acquiring an additional 21,217 shares in the last quarter. Finally, BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S boosted its position in shares of AES by 36.4% during the 4th quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 26,748 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $515,000 after purchasing an additional 7,141 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $19.01 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.40 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $22.21. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $17.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.93.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.63%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

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.