Ellsworth Advisors LLC Grows Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 43.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 98,515 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 29,920 shares during the period. Ellsworth Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,268,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AES. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 18.7% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,066,251 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,734,000 after acquiring an additional 168,348 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in AES by 16.5% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,084,000 after purchasing an additional 444,252 shares in the last quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 175,525 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,084,000 after purchasing an additional 1,186 shares in the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank boosted its stake in shares of AES by 21.2% during the 2nd quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 218,983 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,848,000 after buying an additional 38,326 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 13.0% during the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 108,506 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,906,000 after buying an additional 12,520 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have commented on the stock. Bank of America began coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays decreased their price target on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho decreased their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $11.85 on Monday. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $11.57 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a PE ratio of 8.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $12.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $15.90.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.94%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

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.