Scientech Research LLC Takes $499,000 Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Scientech Research LLC bought a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 28,380 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $499,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after acquiring an additional 31,009,718 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its stake in shares of AES by 11.4% in the first quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in AES in the first quarter worth $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in AES by 70.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after buying an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after buying an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $20.07 on Monday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $17.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.16. 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 AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The firm has a market cap of $14.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.88 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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