44,848 Shares in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Acquired by Burney Co.

Burney Co. purchased a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 44,848 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $577,000.

Other large investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in AES during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its stake in AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter valued at $63,000. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 3rd quarter worth about $74,000. Finally, Blue Trust Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 69.3% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 1,509 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Finally, Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of AES traded down $0.16 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $11.85. 12,463,565 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 9,833,807. The company has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.23, a PEG ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.99 and a 200 day simple moving average of $15.91. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $11.57 and a 52 week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.96 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is a boost from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.94%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.92%.

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.