Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. Has $88.61 Million Stock Position in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 3.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,134,771 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 255,512 shares during the quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. owned approximately 1.00% of AES worth $88,614,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new stake in shares of AES during the fourth quarter worth approximately $121,627,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in AES by 10.6% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,559,912 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $84,426,000 after purchasing an additional 628,911 shares during the period. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT boosted its holdings in AES by 13.6% in the first quarter. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT now owns 6,097,946 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $75,736,000 after purchasing an additional 730,178 shares during the period. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 14.5% in the first quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 4,537,095 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $56,351,000 after purchasing an additional 575,268 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AES shares. Susquehanna raised their target price on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Citigroup dropped their price target on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. 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 note on Tuesday, July 22nd. HSBC dropped their price target on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research note on Monday, May 5th. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.67.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES traded down $0.10 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $12.96. The company had a trading volume of 5,769,195 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,096,965. The company has a market capitalization of $9.22 billion, a PE ratio of 9.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.56 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $12.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $11.38. The AES Corporation has a twelve month low of $9.46 and a twelve month high of $20.30.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors 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 yield of 5.4%. AES's payout ratio is currently 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.