Monarch Capital Management Inc. Acquires 16,590 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Monarch Capital Management Inc. raised its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 18.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 104,981 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,590 shares during the quarter. Monarch Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,351,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new position in shares of AES in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 59.1% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 640 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth about $63,000. Blue Trust Inc. increased its stake in shares of AES by 69.3% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 1,509 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt bought a new position in AES during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $74,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have commented on AES. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Barclays dropped their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AES presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.30.

AES Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE:AES opened at $11.85 on Friday. 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 AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.57 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.23, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.00. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $12.99 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $15.91.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.96 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.94%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 47.92%.

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.