Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC Increases Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 11.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 14,082 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,436 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $181,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its holdings in AES by 7.4% in the fourth quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $206,000 after acquiring an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $683,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141 shares during the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its position in AES by 93.3% during the 4th quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, Seed Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Seed Wealth Management Inc. now owns 14,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $189,000 after buying an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of several analyst reports. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.63.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $12.45 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $11.34 and its 200-day moving average price is $13.88. 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 stock has a market capitalization of $8.86 billion, a PE ratio of 8.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $9.88 and a twelve month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.54%.

AES Company 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.