Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. Purchases Shares of 383,564 The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Van Lanschot Kempen Investment Management N.V. bought a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 383,564 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $4,936,000.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its position in shares of AES by 67.1% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,273,000 after acquiring an additional 133,308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $991,000 after purchasing an additional 75,509 shares during the period. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth about $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter valued at about $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 47.1% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $946,000 after buying an additional 23,764 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently commented on AES. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a “hold” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn lowered 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, two have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.67.

AES Stock Down 3.7 %

AES stock opened at $9.80 on Tuesday. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $9.57 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.29 and a 200 day simple moving average of $12.78. 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 firm has a market cap of $6.98 billion, a PE ratio of 6.81, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.18%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

AES Company 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.