Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV Makes New Investment in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Acorn Financial Advisory Services Inc. ADV purchased a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 66,741 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $859,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $139,000. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 12.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 2,930,901 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $58,794,000 after purchasing an additional 333,154 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake 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 valued at $16,667,000 after purchasing an additional 28,043 shares during the period. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC now owns 3,541,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,575,000 after buying an additional 32,122 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings in AES by 12.1% in the fourth quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,231,000 after purchasing an additional 43,792 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on AES shares. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho cut their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.71.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $9.94 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.57 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $11.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.42. The firm has a market cap of $7.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.90, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders 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 yield of 7.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 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.