Ellsworth Advisors LLC Boosts Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ellsworth Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 43.6% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 98,515 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 29,920 shares during the quarter. Ellsworth Advisors LLC's holdings in AES were worth $1,268,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 18.7% during the second quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,066,251 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $18,734,000 after purchasing an additional 168,348 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in AES by 16.5% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $55,084,000 after buying an additional 444,252 shares during the period. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 0.7% in the 2nd quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 175,525 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $3,084,000 after buying an additional 1,186 shares during the last quarter. Amalgamated Bank increased its stake in shares of AES by 21.2% during the second quarter. Amalgamated Bank now owns 218,983 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,848,000 after buying an additional 38,326 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC lifted its stake in AES by 13.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 108,506 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,906,000 after acquiring an additional 12,520 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Stock Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE AES traded down $0.16 during trading on Monday, reaching $11.85. The company had a trading volume of 12,463,565 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,833,807. The business's 50-day moving average is $12.99 and its 200 day moving average is $15.90. 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 stock has a market cap of $8.42 billion, a PE ratio of 8.23, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.00. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $11.57 and a 12-month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its 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. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company's revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.94%. This is a boost from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES's payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on AES. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, December 13th. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a "buy" rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $19.30.

AES Company 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.