Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC Acquires Shares of 10,750 The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 10,750 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $189,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Empowered Funds LLC increased its holdings in AES by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,237,000 after purchasing an additional 2,273 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 735.2% in the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,070,000 after purchasing an additional 543,464 shares in the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,235,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its holdings in AES by 20.1% during the first quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 839,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $15,049,000 after buying an additional 140,610 shares during the period. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in AES by 178.5% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 689,879 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $12,369,000 after buying an additional 442,184 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded up $0.01 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $16.66. 7,689,283 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,195,269. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.78. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $11.43 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $18.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $11.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.14 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 35.44%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st will be issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.14%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, August 1st. AES’s payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. Mizuho raised their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 17th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.71.

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.