Hsbc Holdings PLC Acquires 227,101 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 7.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 3,238,885 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 227,101 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned about 0.46% of AES worth $41,716,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC increased its position in AES by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $632,865,000 after buying an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in AES by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $205,261,000 after acquiring an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT acquired a new position in shares of AES in the 4th quarter worth approximately $69,083,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new stake in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,964,000. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in AES by 32.8% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,301,147 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $55,350,000 after buying an additional 1,062,074 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AES shares. Barclays cut their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $13.71.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.19 on Tuesday, reaching $10.38. The stock had a trading volume of 13,871,368 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,522,550. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.57 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The business's 50-day moving average price is $11.29 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $12.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The stock has a market cap of $7.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.21, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.78%. AES's payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

AES 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.