Sciencast Management LP Purchases New Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Sciencast Management LP purchased a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 65,255 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,170,000.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth $33,000. Glassman Wealth Services grew its holdings in AES by 186.1% during the 4th quarter. Glassman Wealth Services now owns 1,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 1,254 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA grew its holdings in AES by 68.8% during the 4th quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 1,088 shares in the last quarter. Principal Securities Inc. purchased a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at about $57,000. Finally, Allworth Financial LP grew its holdings in shares of AES by 133.7% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,779 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently commented on AES. Mizuho boosted their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.88.

AES Stock Up 1.4 %

AES stock traded up $0.26 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $18.91. The stock had a trading volume of 6,349,835 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,095,124. The firm has a market cap of $13.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.26 and a beta of 1.08. The business has a 50-day moving average of $19.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.96. 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 issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.20 billion. AES had a return on equity of 36.23% and a net margin of 4.40%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.22 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.65%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

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.