Assetmark Inc. Has $2.08 Million Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Assetmark Inc. lifted its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 9.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 161,762 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 13,901 shares during the period. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,082,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of AES. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $16,667,000 after purchasing an additional 28,043 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the third quarter worth $347,000. Atria Investments Inc raised its position in AES by 97.4% during the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 86,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,736,000 after buying an additional 42,707 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in AES by 3.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,596,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,016,000 after buying an additional 59,735 shares during the period. Finally, Live Oak Investment Partners raised its position in AES by 3.9% during the third quarter. Live Oak Investment Partners now owns 29,241 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $587,000 after buying an additional 1,104 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Susquehanna dropped their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho dropped their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, HSBC started coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.30.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $11.79 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 8.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $11.32 and a 200-day moving average of $14.29. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-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 (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.97%. AES’s payout ratio is 29.54%.

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.