Ardsley Advisory Partners LP Grows Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ardsley Advisory Partners LP lifted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 1,084.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 450,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 412,000 shares during the quarter. Ardsley Advisory Partners LP owned 0.06% of AES worth $5,792,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 190.3% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares during the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its holdings in AES by 79.5% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC raised its position in AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. Covestor Ltd grew its holdings in shares of AES by 601.5% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,745 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $74,000 after purchasing an additional 4,926 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 18,047.1% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $79,000 after buying an additional 6,136 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES traded up $0.19 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $10.45. The company's stock had a trading volume of 12,177,202 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,669,885. 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 52-week low of $9.57 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $7.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.25, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $12.24.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. AES's quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 $0.176 dividend. 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 6.74%. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AES. Mizuho cut their price target 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. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating and set a $10.00 target price (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Barclays decreased their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $13.71.

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.