Stevens Capital Management LP Buys 25,348 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Stevens Capital Management LP raised its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 154.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 41,734 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 25,348 shares during the quarter. Stevens Capital Management LP’s holdings in AES were worth $537,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in AES during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in AES by 190.3% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares during the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new stake in AES during the third quarter valued at about $63,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 18,047.1% during the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays lowered their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

AES Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of AES opened at $13.07 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.88 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.95. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.54%.

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.