Aquatic Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Aquatic Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 242.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 881,345 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 624,245 shares during the quarter. Aquatic Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.12% of AES worth $11,343,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Stephens Inc. AR increased its holdings in AES by 67.1% in 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. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 5,143.7% in the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $991,000 after buying an additional 75,509 shares in the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd bought a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at about $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. bought a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter worth about $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its position in AES by 47.1% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $946,000 after acquiring an additional 23,764 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of several research reports. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $13.71.

AES Trading Up 1.4 %

Shares of NYSE AES traded up $0.14 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $9.96. The company's stock had a trading volume of 7,710,539 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,564,232. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.27 and a 200-day simple moving average of $12.48. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $9.57 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $7.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 6.94, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given 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 7.07%. AES's payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

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.