The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Purchased by Gamco Investors INC. ET AL

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL boosted its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.3% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 563,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,000 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned about 0.08% of AES worth $10,107,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of AES by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after acquiring an additional 1,929,523 shares during the period. Capital International Investors lifted its position in shares of AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares during the period. Capital World Investors lifted its position in shares of AES by 76.9% during the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after acquiring an additional 31,009,718 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $123,272,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of AES by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.75.

AES Trading Up 1.7 %

AES stock traded up $0.29 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $17.52. The stock had a trading volume of 5,224,716 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,963,987. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $11.43 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $19.12 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.84. The firm has a market cap of $12.45 billion, a PE ratio of 24.32 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.71.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The company had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.22 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.94%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

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.