Benjamin Edwards Inc. Makes New Investment in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 80,718 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,619,000.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter worth about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in AES by 102.3% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC acquired a new stake in AES in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC boosted its stake in AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 183.8% in the 2nd quarter. Crewe Advisors LLC now owns 3,023 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $53,000 after buying an additional 1,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of several research reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Susquehanna cut 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 shares of AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $20.22.

AES Trading Down 1.1 %

AES stock opened at $13.29 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $15.74 and a 200 day moving average price of $17.46. 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 52 week low of $12.53 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.01.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.19%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

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.