The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Stake Raised by Carret Asset Management LLC

Carret Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 13.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 88,743 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 10,791 shares during the period. Carret Asset Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,708,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth approximately $428,000. South Dakota Investment Council raised its holdings in AES by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. South Dakota Investment Council now owns 37,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $731,000 after purchasing an additional 4,800 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC bought a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter worth approximately $198,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its holdings in shares of AES by 267.5% in the fourth quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after buying an additional 2,611 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 63.1% in the fourth quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 909,664 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $17,511,000 after buying an additional 352,063 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have issued reports on the company. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price target on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price objective on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.13.

AES Stock Up 1.4 %

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.24 on Wednesday, hitting $17.37. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 4,538,534 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,336,432. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $11.43 and a fifty-two week high of $24.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $16.49 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.76. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.35 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.64 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.49 EPS. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.97%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 209.10%.

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.