Ausbil Investment Management Ltd Takes Position in The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Ausbil Investment Management Ltd acquired a new stake in The AES Corporation, purchasing 184,565 shares valued at approximately $1.94 million in Q2.
• Wall Street analysts have a generally optimistic view on AES, with an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a target price of $24.67.
• AES recently announced a $0.176 quarterly dividend per share, translating to an annualized yield of 5.3% with a payout ratio of 49.30%.

Ausbil Investment Management Ltd purchased a new stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 184,565 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,942,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,115,438 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $88,374,000 after buying an additional 1,421,899 shares during the period. Community Trust & Investment Co. boosted its stake in AES by 37.4% during the first quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $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 worth about $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 2.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $10,235,000 after buying an additional 20,109 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake 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 worth $15,780,000 after buying an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts have recently commented on AES shares. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.67.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.25 on Friday. The firm's fifty day simple moving average is $13.18 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.88. The AES Corporation has a 12 month low of $9.46 and a 12 month high of $20.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.33, a PEG ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.92.

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

AES Announces Dividend

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

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.

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