Empyrean Capital Partners LP Makes New Investment in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Empyrean Capital Partners LP purchased a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,755,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $48,327,000. AES comprises 2.2% of Empyrean Capital Partners LP's holdings, making the stock its 15th largest holding. Empyrean Capital Partners LP owned 0.53% of AES as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its position in AES by 190.3% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,201 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 601.5% during the 4th quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,745 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $74,000 after buying an additional 4,926 shares during the period. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 18,047.1% during the 4th 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. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently commented on AES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced 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. Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note 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. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $13.71.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES traded up $0.32 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $11.14. The company's stock had a trading volume of 14,686,779 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,727,573. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $9.57 and a 1 year high of $22.21. 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 business's fifty day moving average is $11.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.07. The stock has a market cap of $7.93 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.74, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS 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 business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 EPS. The firm's revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued 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 yield of 6.32%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.