ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC Acquires 735,800 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 267.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,010,800 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 735,800 shares during the quarter. ArrowMark Colorado Holdings LLC owned 0.14% of AES worth $13,009,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in AES by 190.3% in the fourth 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 period. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares during the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd grew its position in AES by 601.5% in the 4th 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 grew 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 worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts recently commented on the stock. Bank of America raised shares of 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. 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. decreased their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating and issued a $10.00 price objective (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $13.71.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.16 on Wednesday, hitting $10.29. 10,993,175 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,677,925. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $11.20 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.23. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.57 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

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

AES Announces Dividend

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 paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio is presently 38.04%.

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.