Public Sector Pension Investment Board Raises Stock Holdings in The AES Corporation $AES

Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 3.1% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 190,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 5,643 shares during the period. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in AES were worth $2,361,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter valued at about $121,627,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in AES by 30.4% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $258,224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,149 shares during the last quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP acquired a new stake in AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $48,327,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its holdings in AES by 130.4% in the 4th quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,950,924 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,848,000 after purchasing an additional 2,236,418 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on AES. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. HSBC dropped their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.3150 on Wednesday. The firm has a market cap of $9.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.38, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The AES Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.46 and a 1-year high of $20.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $12.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.43.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were given a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.30%.

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.