Ieq Capital LLC Grows Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ieq Capital LLC boosted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 78.9% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 34,046 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 15,011 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $655,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 26.1% in the fourth quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 146,117 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,813,000 after buying an additional 30,287 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in AES by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,559,517 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $49,273,000 after purchasing an additional 10,002 shares during the period. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of AES by 27.2% during the fourth quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 160,382 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,087,000 after purchasing an additional 34,246 shares in the last quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 16.5% in the fourth quarter. Buckingham Capital Management Inc. now owns 232,812 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,482,000 after purchasing an additional 32,990 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new stake in AES during the 4th quarter worth approximately $57,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the subject of several recent research reports. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target for the company. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.13.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $21.13 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.71, a current ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.60. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $17.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.30. The company has a market capitalization of $15.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.35 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The firm had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.22 EPS. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st were paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

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.