Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Purchases New Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm acquired 277,903 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $5,350,000.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC grew its holdings in AES by 38.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $559,689,000 after purchasing an additional 10,256,781 shares during the period. Electron Capital Partners LLC increased its position in AES by 9.3% during the 3rd quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,060,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $122,513,000 after buying an additional 686,719 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in AES by 24.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,611,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $115,692,000 after buying an additional 1,484,052 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in AES by 0.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,108,260 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $92,846,000 after acquiring an additional 29,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 2.5% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,728,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $87,070,000 after acquiring an additional 140,149 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Mizuho started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group reduced their target price on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.13.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $18.67 on Monday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $23.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $16.73 and a 200 day moving average of $17.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.27 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.93 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 39.82%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.22 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

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.