Canal Insurance CO Buys 40,000 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Canal Insurance CO lifted its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 100.0% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 80,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 40,000 shares during the period. Canal Insurance CO's holdings in AES were worth $1,030,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new position in shares of AES during the third quarter worth approximately $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 59.1% during the third quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in shares of AES during the third quarter worth approximately $63,000. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in AES by 69.3% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 1,509 shares during the period. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt acquired a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at approximately $74,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AES. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Finally, Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Down 3.8 %

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.44 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $11.01. 22,664,502 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 13,738,836. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The company has a market cap of $7.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.64, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The AES Co. has a one year low of $10.81 and a one year high of $22.21. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $12.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $15.57.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a boost from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.40%. AES's dividend payout ratio 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.