Douglas Lane & Associates LLC Grows Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Douglas Lane & Associates LLC boosted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 0.9% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,541,203 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 32,122 shares during the quarter. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC owned approximately 0.50% of AES worth $45,575,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its position in AES by 161.8% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after acquiring an additional 66,145 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC grew its position in shares of AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank increased its stake in AES by 28.4% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 257,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,163,000 after purchasing an additional 56,879 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Down 4.9 %

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.63 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $12.32. The company had a trading volume of 10,701,279 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,572,622. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.56, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $13.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.25. 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 one year low of $12.09 and a one year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date 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 5.71%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.61%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AES. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, November 21st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Barclays cut their target price on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Bank of America began coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $19.30.

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.