UMB Bank n.a. Buys 75,509 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 5,143.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 76,977 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 75,509 shares during the quarter. UMB Bank n.a.'s holdings in AES were worth $991,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in AES by 18.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $30,746,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in AES by 169.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,002,000 after buying an additional 1,348,195 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in AES by 30.3% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $77,000,000 after acquiring an additional 892,500 shares during the period. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new position in shares of AES in the third quarter valued at about $17,390,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Trading Down 3.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.39 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $11.37. The company had a trading volume of 8,848,046 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,290,306. The stock has a market cap of $8.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $12.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $15.81. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.35 and a one year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. AES's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is a boost from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.19%. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, December 13th. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a "buy" rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $19.30.

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.