Cerity Partners LLC Acquires 772,515 Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 449.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 944,251 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 772,515 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC owned about 0.13% of AES worth $11,728,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 33.5% during the first quarter. Hexagon Capital Partners LLC now owns 3,880 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $48,000 after buying an additional 974 shares in the last quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in AES by 1.1% in the first quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 94,686 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,176,000 after purchasing an additional 1,012 shares during the period. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in AES by 5.0% in the first quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 24,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $307,000 after purchasing an additional 1,173 shares during the period. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its holdings in AES by 79.5% in 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 period. Finally, Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV increased its holdings in AES by 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Nissay Asset Management Corp Japan ADV now owns 85,866 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,095,000 after purchasing an additional 1,382 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. HSBC decreased their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen downgraded AES from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Saturday, May 24th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.22.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $12.59 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.96 billion, a PE ratio of 6.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.69 and a beta of 0.95. The company's 50-day moving average is $10.96 and its 200-day moving average is $11.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a current ratio of 0.84 and a quick ratio of 0.78. The AES Corporation has a 1 year low of $9.46 and a 1 year high of $20.30.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 10.67%. AES's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.59%. 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.

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