The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Bought by Advisors Asset Management Inc.

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 5.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 178,289 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,524 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $3,197,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AES. Axxcess Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at about $233,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 146.3% in the 1st quarter. EntryPoint Capital LLC now owns 3,468 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $62,000 after buying an additional 2,060 shares during the last quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co raised its holdings in shares of AES by 0.5% during the first quarter. CANADA LIFE ASSURANCE Co now owns 205,127 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,679,000 after acquiring an additional 1,003 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AES by 28.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 10,452 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $188,000 after acquiring an additional 2,290 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UniSuper Management Pty Ltd boosted its stake in shares of AES by 672.0% in the first quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 63,662 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,141,000 after acquiring an additional 55,416 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Stock Up 1.6 %

Shares of AES traded up $0.28 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $17.51. The company had a trading volume of 5,224,211 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,120,550. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.78. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.32 and a beta of 1.08. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $19.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.84.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced 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. The business had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.20 billion. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.22 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.94%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have commented on the stock. Mizuho increased their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, May 17th. UBS Group dropped their target price on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.75.

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.