Assenagon Asset Management S.A. Acquires 1,348,195 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 169.5% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,348,195 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in AES were worth $43,002,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of AES. Rise Advisors LLC increased 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. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its stake in AES by 102.3% during the 2nd 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 during the period. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new position in AES in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 183.8% in the second quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 3,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,000 after acquiring an additional 1,958 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Down 0.6 %

AES stock opened at $16.98 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.32. 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 1-year low of $14.33 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $12.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.58 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. AES’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.21 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.06%. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.57.

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.