Viking Fund Management LLC Purchases 55,000 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Viking Fund Management LLC raised its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 35.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 208,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 55,000 shares during the quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $4,172,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Quarry LP raised its position in AES by 12.3% during the 4th quarter. Quarry LP now owns 15,323 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $295,000 after purchasing an additional 1,678 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 70.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after acquiring an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. increased its position in AES by 145.2% during the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 145,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,793,000 after purchasing an additional 85,926 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC bought a new position in AES during the 4th quarter worth approximately $215,000. Finally, Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 4th quarter valued at $260,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays dropped their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.43.

AES Stock Down 0.1 %

NYSE:AES traded down $0.01 on Friday, hitting $17.32. The stock had a trading volume of 7,074,972 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,137,268. The company has a market cap of $12.31 billion, a PE ratio of 24.06 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $12.87 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The business’s fifty day moving average is $17.89 and its 200 day moving average is $18.36. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.21 EPS. AES’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. AES’s payout ratio is 95.83%.

AES Company 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.