PFG Investments LLC Takes $141,000 Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

PFG Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm acquired 10,935 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $141,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 18.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in AES by 169.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $43,002,000 after buying an additional 1,348,195 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its stake in shares of AES by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after acquiring an additional 892,500 shares during the last quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth about $17,390,000. Finally, M&G PLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $11.02 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $10.81 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $12.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.45. The firm has a market cap of $7.83 billion, a PE ratio of 7.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.86 and a beta of 1.00.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.39%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Mizuho reduced their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

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.