The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Holdings Raised by Levin Capital Strategies L.P.

Levin Capital Strategies L.P. boosted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 13.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 75,349 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 9,085 shares during the quarter. Levin Capital Strategies L.P.’s holdings in AES were worth $970,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $28,000. WR Wealth Planners LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 93.3% during the 4th 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. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth $63,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth $139,000. Finally, Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 160.3% during the 3rd quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,983 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $140,000 after purchasing an additional 4,300 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AES. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $11.59 on Friday. 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 firm has a market capitalization of $8.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s fifty day moving average is $11.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $14.53. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 48.61%.

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.