Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund Purchases 2,204 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund raised its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 10.5% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 23,253 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,204 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems Insurance Trust Fund’s holdings in AES were worth $299,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of AES by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after buying an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 1.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $330,125,000 after buying an additional 181,975 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 1.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares in the last quarter. M&G PLC raised 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 valued at $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 12.5% in the fourth quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,961,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,989,000 after buying an additional 439,493 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $10.41 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $11.82 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.82. The stock has a market cap of $7.40 billion, a PE ratio of 7.23, a PEG ratio of 0.77 and a beta of 0.99. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.88 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st were paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.76%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

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.