NFJ Investment Group LLC Purchases 49,883 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

NFJ Investment Group LLC raised its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 12.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 463,731 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 49,883 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned approximately 0.07% of AES worth $9,302,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 77.8% in 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 in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its stake in shares of AES by 6.0% in the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 40,871 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $699,000 after buying an additional 2,327 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 45.1% during the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,001 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $108,000 after buying an additional 1,864 shares during the last quarter. CWM LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after acquiring an additional 628 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Simplicity Wealth LLC boosted its stake in AES by 23.1% during the 2nd quarter. Simplicity Wealth LLC now owns 225,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $3,953,000 after purchasing an additional 42,177 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

AES traded up $0.09 on Tuesday, reaching $13.10. 2,254,955 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 9,024,652. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.53 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $16.11 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.31 billion, a PE ratio of 9.03, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.02.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.27%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. 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. Mizuho dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays boosted their target price on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $20.22.

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.