DRW Securities LLC Boosts Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

DRW Securities LLC increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 218.6% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 112,834 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 77,415 shares during the quarter. DRW Securities LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,452,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Quantinno Capital Management LP lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 6.4% in the third quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 73,066 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,466,000 after buying an additional 4,389 shares in the last quarter. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 3.0% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 288,647 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $5,790,000 after buying an additional 8,294 shares in the last quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the third quarter worth about $567,000. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 87.1% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 136,342 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,735,000 after buying an additional 63,457 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 229.8% in the third quarter. Y Intercept Hong Kong Ltd now owns 85,416 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,713,000 after buying an additional 59,513 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES opened at $11.15 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $9.88 and a one year high of $22.21. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $11.35 and a 200 day moving average of $13.35. The company has a market capitalization of $7.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.74, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AES. HSBC began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $15.33.

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.