Cannell & Spears LLC Purchases Shares of 25,000 The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Cannell & Spears LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 25,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $322,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT bought a new stake in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $69,083,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in AES in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $33,964,000. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in AES by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after purchasing an additional 892,500 shares during the last quarter. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 53.0% in the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,596,850 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $32,031,000 after purchasing an additional 553,311 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $12.36 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.38 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.72. 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 $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.80 billion, a PE ratio of 8.59, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.69%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on AES. Bank of America raised AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $16.63.

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.