The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Acquired by M&G Plc

M&G PLC grew its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares during the period. M&G PLC owned about 0.92% of AES worth $130,235,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in AES. Rise Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 92.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in AES in the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. increased its position in shares of AES by 102.3% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 898 shares in the last quarter. nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, Cromwell Holdings LLC grew its stake in AES by 59.1% in the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 640 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have issued reports on AES. Susquehanna decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $22.38.

AES Trading Down 3.9 %

NYSE AES traded down $0.55 on Thursday, reaching $13.65. 25,548,844 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,532,833. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.62 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.86 and a beta of 1.10. The business's fifty day moving average price is $17.70 and its 200 day moving average price is $18.26. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.05%. AES's 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.