The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Position Increased by NFJ Investment Group LLC

NFJ Investment Group LLC increased its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 16.4% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 539,952 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 76,221 shares during the quarter. NFJ Investment Group LLC owned approximately 0.08% of AES worth $6,949,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Stephens Inc. AR boosted its stake in shares of AES by 67.1% during the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $4,273,000 after buying an additional 133,308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in AES by 5,143.7% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares in the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 4th quarter worth about $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter worth about $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in AES by 47.1% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 23,764 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Price Performance

AES stock traded up $0.15 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $9.95. The company had a trading volume of 2,118,971 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,087,727. The business has a 50 day moving average of $11.29 and a 200 day moving average of $12.78. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.91, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. 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 fifty-two week low of $9.57 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 7.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently commented on AES. Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Susquehanna decreased their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $13.67.

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.