The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Acquired by Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC

Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 58.3% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 60,014 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 22,105 shares during the period. Gallagher Fiduciary Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $772,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new position in AES in the fourth quarter worth $949,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of AES by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,559,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $84,426,000 after buying an additional 628,911 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in shares of AES by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,429,483 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,267,000 after buying an additional 25,395 shares during the last quarter. Decade Renewable Partners LP raised its stake in AES by 58.9% during the fourth quarter. Decade Renewable Partners LP now owns 416,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,362,000 after acquiring an additional 154,400 shares during the period. Finally, Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in AES by 79.5% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES opened at $9.94 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.07 billion, a PE ratio of 6.90, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $9.57 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.42.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS 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 issued a $0.176 dividend. 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 payout ratio is 29.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. 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. Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.71.

AES 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.