Maven Securities LTD Takes Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Maven Securities LTD acquired a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 25,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stephens Inc. AR grew its stake in AES by 67.1% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,273,000 after purchasing an additional 133,308 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its stake in shares of AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $991,000 after buying an additional 75,509 shares during the period. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter valued at about $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in AES during the 4th quarter worth about $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. increased its position in AES by 47.1% during 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 purchasing an additional 23,764 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Trading Up 5.7%

Shares of AES stock opened at $12.55 on Wednesday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.57 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $8.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.72, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.04.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share 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 prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.61%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.04%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued 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. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price 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.