EntryPoint Capital LLC Acquires 19,784 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

EntryPoint Capital LLC raised its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 58.9% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 53,383 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 19,784 shares during the period. EntryPoint Capital LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $687,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in AES by 8.0% during the 3rd quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $224,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans raised its position in shares of AES by 664.7% during the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 219,270 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,398,000 after purchasing an additional 190,596 shares during the period. Landscape Capital Management L.L.C. purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at $429,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in AES by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cerity Partners LLC raised its holdings in AES by 15.3% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 167,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,354,000 after acquiring an additional 22,187 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $12.88 on Tuesday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $11.30 and its 200 day moving average is $13.92. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.17 billion, a PE ratio of 8.94, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.88 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.47%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

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.