Public Sector Pension Investment Board Boosts Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 58.6% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 120,496 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 44,529 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in AES were worth $2,117,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Nippon Life Global Investors Americas Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $417,000. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in AES by 1,693.5% in the second quarter. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC now owns 261,060 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,587,000 after purchasing an additional 246,504 shares during the period. ProShare Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 2.8% during the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 172,417 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,029,000 after buying an additional 4,663 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 57.0% in the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 39,241 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $689,000 after buying an additional 14,248 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Symmetry Investments LP raised its holdings in shares of AES by 0.9% in the 2nd quarter. Symmetry Investments LP now owns 211,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,716,000 after buying an additional 1,922 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES opened at $20.07 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.88 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.16. 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 AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.44%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays dropped their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.