The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Acquired by Cape Investment Advisory Inc.

Cape Investment Advisory Inc. raised its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 39.1% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 6,978 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,961 shares during the quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $90,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its position in shares of AES by 67.1% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,273,000 after acquiring an additional 133,308 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $991,000 after purchasing an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,261,000 after purchasing an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the 4th quarter valued at about $489,000. Finally, Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the 4th quarter valued at about $2,375,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AES. Bank of America began coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Mizuho reduced their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC started coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Barclays reduced their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.59 on Monday. The company has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $14.52. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.61%.

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.