Stevens Capital Management LP Raises Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Stevens Capital Management LP increased its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 154.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 41,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 25,348 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in AES were worth $537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp increased its position in AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in AES by 1.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $330,125,000 after purchasing an additional 181,975 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in AES by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,259 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $88,536,000 after purchasing an additional 185,020 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in AES by 5.5% during the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,756,831 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $61,220,000 after purchasing an additional 249,486 shares during the period. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its position in AES by 12.5% during the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,961,827 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $50,989,000 after purchasing an additional 439,493 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.07 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $9.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.07, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.28 and its 200 day moving average is $13.95. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AES shares. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays dropped 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, January 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

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.