Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $3.07 Million Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Baird Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 53.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 238,362 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 82,802 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in AES were worth $3,068,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Rockland Trust Co. boosted its holdings in AES by 7.4% in the 4th quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,110 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in AES by 79.5% during the 4th 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 lifted its holdings in AES by 93.3% during the 4th 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. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in AES by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,082 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Seed Wealth Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of AES by 11.4% in the fourth quarter. Seed Wealth Management Inc. now owns 14,665 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $189,000 after acquiring an additional 1,500 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a "hold" rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.33.

AES Stock Down 0.4%

AES traded down $0.05 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $12.50. The company had a trading volume of 23,328,121 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,900,502. 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 12 month low of $9.57 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The business's fifty day moving average price is $11.25 and its 200 day moving average price is $12.04. The company has a market cap of $8.90 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.68, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's payout ratio is 38.04%.

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.