abrdn plc Increases Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

abrdn plc increased its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 25.1% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 386,712 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 77,662 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc owned approximately 0.05% of AES worth $7,775,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its position in AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth approximately $123,272,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in shares of AES by 3.1% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $83,805,000 after purchasing an additional 141,565 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of AES by 16.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $55,084,000 after purchasing an additional 444,252 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have issued reports on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $22.57.

AES Stock Down 9.7 %

AES stock traded down $1.59 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $14.71. The stock had a trading volume of 30,895,243 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,441,197. The stock's 50-day moving average price is $17.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.29. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $14.68 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The stock has a market capitalization of $10.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.22 and a beta of 1.10.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released 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 business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 28.95% 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 period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. AES's payout ratio is presently 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.