Holocene Advisors LP Makes New Investment in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Holocene Advisors LP acquired a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund acquired 370,915 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $7,441,000.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in AES by 1.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after purchasing an additional 82,956 shares during the period. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in AES by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after buying an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its position in AES by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after buying an additional 141,565 shares during the period. Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 5.8% in the third quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,522,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,658,000 after acquiring an additional 193,755 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in AES by 16.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $55,084,000 after purchasing an additional 444,252 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on AES shares. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America started coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays upped their price target on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.22.

AES Stock Up 0.3 %

AES stock opened at $13.05 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.53 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $15.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.52.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. Analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.29%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.