OLD Second National Bank of Aurora Has $1.11 Million Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

OLD Second National Bank of Aurora boosted its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 2.3% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 86,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,924 shares during the quarter. OLD Second National Bank of Aurora’s holdings in AES were worth $1,114,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Canal Insurance CO raised its stake in AES by 100.0% during the 4th quarter. Canal Insurance CO now owns 80,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the last quarter. Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA acquired a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $1,593,000. PFG Investments LLC acquired a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $141,000. Avaii Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $211,000. Finally, Toth Financial Advisory Corp acquired a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $95,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the topic of several analyst reports. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. 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 report on Monday. Mizuho lowered their target price 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. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock opened at $11.16 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $10.81 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 7.75, a PEG ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The company’s 50-day moving average is $12.63 and its two-hundred day moving average is $15.54.

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, 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 company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This is an increase from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

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.