Atria Investments Inc Purchases 42,707 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Atria Investments Inc raised its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 97.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 86,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 42,707 shares during the quarter. Atria Investments Inc’s holdings in AES were worth $1,736,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. CWM LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $477,000 after purchasing an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. raised its stake in shares of AES by 1.6% during the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 44,433 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $781,000 after purchasing an additional 711 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 92.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 3.2% during the 3rd quarter. SeaCrest Wealth Management LLC now owns 26,301 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $528,000 after purchasing an additional 826 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.38.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $13.97 on Friday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average price is $17.25 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.08. The AES Co. has a one year low of $13.27 and a one year high of $22.21. The firm has a market cap of $9.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 1.10.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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 4.94%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.