Advisors Asset Management Inc. Purchases 103,601 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. raised its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 87.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 221,857 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 103,601 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,855,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in AES by 67.1% in the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,273,000 after purchasing an additional 133,308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 34.6% during the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,261,000 after acquiring an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd bought a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter worth about $489,000. Finally, Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter worth about $2,375,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts recently commented on AES shares. Mizuho decreased their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays reduced their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.07 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $9.88 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.39%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

About AES

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.