Flputnam Investment Management Co. Raises Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Flputnam Investment Management Co. raised its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 12.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 40,581 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,455 shares during the quarter. Flputnam Investment Management Co.’s holdings in AES were worth $781,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AES. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 1.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,790,219 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,155,923,000 after purchasing an additional 1,285,423 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 38.6% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $559,689,000 after purchasing an additional 10,256,781 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp grew its position in shares of AES by 0.3% in the first quarter. State Street Corp now owns 33,324,327 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $857,435,000 after purchasing an additional 102,389 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in AES by 2.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,753,238 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $330,415,000 after buying an additional 283,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Morgan Stanley grew its position in AES by 4.7% during the third quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 13,555,375 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $206,042,000 after buying an additional 606,786 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Trading Up 1.4 %

NYSE AES opened at $16.14 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $11.47 billion, a PE ratio of 48.91 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $24.56. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $16.47 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.64.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The firm 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 earnings per share. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.28%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 209.10%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $22.29.

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.