Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC Raises Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 109.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 128,936 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 67,246 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $2,482,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 17.5% in the third quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 58,439 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $888,000 after purchasing an additional 8,697 shares during the last quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 142,366 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,164,000 after acquiring an additional 9,016 shares during the last quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 34.0% during the third quarter. Perigon Wealth Management LLC now owns 25,551 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $388,000 after purchasing an additional 6,479 shares during the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp lifted its position in AES by 29.9% during the third quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 31,664 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $481,000 after purchasing an additional 7,291 shares during the period. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 13.1% in the third quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 72,126 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,096,000 after purchasing an additional 8,345 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on AES. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Argus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group cut their price target on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price objective 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 analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.13.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.45 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $21.58. The company had a trading volume of 4,106,321 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,341,245. The company has a market capitalization of $15.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.35 and a beta of 1.08. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $17.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.30. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.16. AES had a return on equity of 36.23% and a net margin of 4.40%. The firm had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.20 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.22 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st were given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.20%. 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.