The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Bought by Algert Global LLC

Algert Global LLC increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 578.2% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 950,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 810,533 shares during the period. Algert Global LLC owned approximately 0.13% of AES worth $12,236,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Stephens Inc. AR increased its holdings in AES by 67.1% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,273,000 after buying an additional 133,308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after purchasing an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd acquired a new position in AES in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 47.1% in the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $946,000 after buying an additional 23,764 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on AES. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $10.00 target price (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $13.71.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $10.19 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $9.57 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $7.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.08, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $11.24 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.34.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.91%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.04%.

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.