American Century Companies Inc. Buys 249,541 Shares of The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in The AES Corporation by 14.0%, acquiring an additional 249,541 shares to own over 2 million shares valued at approximately $25.26 million.
• The AES Corporation's quarterly earnings topped analysts' expectations, reporting $0.51 earnings per share, exceeding forecasts of $0.39, although revenue decreased by 3.0% year-over-year.
• AES recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, resulting in an annualized payout of $0.70 and a dividend yield of 5.2%.

American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 14.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,034,160 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 249,541 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.29% of AES worth $25,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Community Trust & Investment Co. lifted its position in AES by 37.4% during the first quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,619,000 after buying an additional 79,355 shares during the period. Lewis Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in AES during the first quarter valued at $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its position in AES by 2.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $10,235,000 after buying an additional 20,109 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in AES by 13.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,543 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $15,780,000 after buying an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC lifted its position in AES by 39.6% during the first quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 1,349,118 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $16,756,000 after buying an additional 382,843 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have commented on AES shares. Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.67.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.03 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $13.39. 982,005 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,229,706. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $12.54 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.43, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.96. The AES Corporation has a one year low of $9.46 and a one year high of $20.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%.The firm's revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. On average, equities research analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.3%. AES's payout ratio is 49.30%.

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.