Natixis Acquires New Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Natixis acquired a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 35,603 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $458,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Stephens Inc. AR lifted its stake in shares of AES by 67.1% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $4,273,000 after purchasing an additional 133,308 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its holdings in AES by 5,143.7% in 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 during the period. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd acquired a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its position in shares of AES by 47.1% during 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. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have commented on AES. Mizuho cut their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reiterated a "hold" rating and issued a $10.00 price target (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $13.71.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.36 on Wednesday, hitting $10.01. 18,018,680 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,575,937. The company has a market capitalization of $7.13 billion, a PE ratio of 6.95, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company's fifty day moving average is $11.27 and its 200 day moving average is $12.48. 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 AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.57 and a 1-year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 7.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.54%.

AES Company 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.