Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 9,017 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 11.6% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 86,513 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 9,017 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,735,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. CWM LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 2.4% in the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 59.1% in the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its holdings 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 last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC increased its stake in AES by 92.4% during the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC increased its stake in AES by 3.2% during the third quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,000 after acquiring an additional 826 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $12.99 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $16.47 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.76. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $12.53 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. AES’s payout ratio is 47.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays boosted their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho reduced their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.22.

AES 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.