Benjamin Edwards Inc. Acquires New Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Benjamin Edwards Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 80,718 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,619,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cetera Advisors LLC increased its position in AES by 77.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 7,897 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its position in shares of AES by 6.0% during the 1st quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 40,871 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $699,000 after buying an additional 2,327 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 45.1% in the second quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 6,001 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $108,000 after acquiring an additional 1,864 shares in the last quarter. CWM LLC grew its holdings in AES by 2.4% during the 2nd quarter. CWM LLC now owns 27,122 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $477,000 after acquiring an additional 628 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Gilman Hill Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in AES during the second quarter valued at approximately $189,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Trading Down 1.7 %

AES traded down $0.22 during trading on Friday, hitting $13.07. The company's stock had a trading volume of 4,889,031 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,141,341. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $15.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $12.53 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.29 billion, a PE ratio of 9.23, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.01.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company's revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. On average, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.28%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts recently issued reports on AES shares. Barclays raised their target price on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $20.22.

AES 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.