Lazard Asset Management LLC Acquires 37,034 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 18.4% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 238,502 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 37,034 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $3,069,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its stake in AES by 190.3% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. grew 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 purchasing an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its holdings in AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in AES by 601.5% in the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 4,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in AES by 18,047.1% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts have issued reports on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and issued a $10.00 price target (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.33.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $12.19 on Friday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $9.57 and a one year 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. The firm has a market cap of $8.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.46, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $11.29 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.98.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted 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 business 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 earnings per share. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st were issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio 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.