Cowa LLC Makes New Investment in The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Cowa LLC acquired 26,292 shares of The AES Corporation, valued at approximately $327,000, during the first quarter of this year.
• AES recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, which represents an annual yield of 5.3%.
• Shares of AES stock are currently trading at $13.31, reflecting a 2.9% increase as of the latest market opening.

Cowa LLC purchased a new position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 26,292 shares of the utilities provider's stock, valued at approximately $327,000.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. American Century Companies Inc. increased its position in AES by 14.0% during the first quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 2,034,160 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $25,264,000 after buying an additional 249,541 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in AES by 2.8% during the first quarter. Providence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 486,745 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $6,045,000 after buying an additional 13,264 shares during the period. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 108.1% in the first quarter. Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC now owns 43,231 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $537,000 after purchasing an additional 22,453 shares during the period. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 10.4% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,069,155 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $13,279,000 after purchasing an additional 100,379 shares during the period. Finally, HighTower Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 22.3% in the first quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,453,840 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $18,057,000 after purchasing an additional 264,836 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna boosted their target price on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Argus reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their target price on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.67.

AES Trading Down 0.8%

AES stock traded down $0.1050 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $13.1950. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,170,356 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,582,032. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.29, a P/E/G ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.96. The stock's fifty day moving average is $12.29 and its 200 day moving average is $11.43. The AES Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.46 and a 1-year high of $20.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.82.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 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.