Bridgewater Associates LP Purchases Shares of 866,913 The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Bridgewater Associates LP acquired a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 866,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,390,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. O Shaughnessy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in AES during the 1st quarter valued at about $189,000. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in AES by 10.0% in the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 73,420 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,316,000 after purchasing an additional 6,684 shares during the period. Beck Bode LLC boosted its stake in AES by 19.1% during the 1st quarter. Beck Bode LLC now owns 708,767 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $12,708,000 after purchasing an additional 113,641 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Shields & Co. LLC bought a new position in AES during the first quarter valued at about $746,000. Finally, Cetera Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AES by 77.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $324,000 after acquiring an additional 7,897 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Monday. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.22.

AES Stock Up 3.3 %

Shares of AES opened at $13.00 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $12.53 and a 12 month 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 50-day moving average price of $16.60 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $17.79. The stock has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10.

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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 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.