Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. Acquires 17,882 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 28.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 81,065 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 17,882 shares during the quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,424,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Atomi Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in AES by 15.4% during the second quarter. Atomi Financial Group Inc. now owns 20,209 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter worth about $221,000. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its stake in AES by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 39,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $686,000 after buying an additional 5,612 shares during the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System raised its holdings in AES by 6.0% in the 2nd quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 194,595 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,419,000 after acquiring an additional 11,100 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in AES by 3.1% during the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $83,805,000 after acquiring an additional 141,565 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on AES. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. Barclays dropped their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Mizuho upped their price target on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

AES Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $16.94 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $11.43 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $17.41 and its 200 day moving average is $17.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.53 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.07%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 95.83%.

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.