Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI Purchases New Shares in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI acquired a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund acquired 1,749,942 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $30,746,000. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI owned 0.25% of AES as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. CWM LLC grew its position in AES by 2.4% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after buying an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its position in shares of AES by 1.6% in the second quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 44,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in AES by 92.4% in the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Empirical Finance LLC lifted its position in AES by 4.7% during the first quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 18,185 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $326,000 after purchasing an additional 823 shares during the period. Finally, UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in AES by 102.3% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $19.10 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.57 billion, a PE ratio of 26.53 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $17.48 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.08. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. Analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given 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 3.61%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Barclays reduced their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

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.