Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. Purchases 32,168 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co. boosted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 111.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 60,992 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 32,168 shares during the period. Duff & Phelps Investment Management Co.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,174,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in AES by 16.6% in the 3rd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 66,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,005,000 after buying an additional 9,436 shares in the last quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. increased its stake in AES by 3.4% in the third quarter. Asset Management One Co. Ltd. now owns 470,371 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,150,000 after acquiring an additional 15,338 shares during the last quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its position in AES by 17.5% during the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 58,439 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $888,000 after purchasing an additional 8,697 shares in the last quarter. Xponance Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 131.0% during the 3rd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 301,086 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,577,000 after buying an additional 170,752 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates boosted its stake in AES by 17.9% in the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 3,000,303 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $45,605,000 after buying an additional 456,526 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $17.90 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $16.58 and its 200 day moving average is $16.92. The company has a market cap of $12.72 billion, a PE ratio of 54.24 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $23.75.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.36 billion. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The business’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.49 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group lowered their price target on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.13.

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.