Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC Takes Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 92,698 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,193,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Stephens Inc. AR increased its position in AES by 67.1% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,273,000 after acquiring an additional 133,308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC increased its position in AES by 34.6% during the third quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $15,261,000 after acquiring an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter valued at $489,000. Finally, Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter valued at $2,375,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on AES. Barclays reduced their price objective on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho reduced their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $18.30.

Remove Ads

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES traded up $0.47 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $12.30. The company's stock had a trading volume of 16,774,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,121,738. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $11.27 and a two-hundred day moving average of $14.19. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a PE ratio of 8.54, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

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.