The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Shares Bought by LPL Financial LLC

LPL Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 22.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 634,974 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 114,999 shares during the quarter. LPL Financial LLC owned about 0.09% of AES worth $7,886,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $121,627,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP purchased a new position in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $48,327,000. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $33,964,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG increased its position in shares of AES by 130.4% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,950,924 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $50,848,000 after buying an additional 2,236,418 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Trading Down 0.4%

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.06 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $13.00. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,981,444 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,710,065. The AES Corporation has a twelve month low of $9.46 and a twelve month high of $20.30. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $12.10 and a 200-day moving average of $11.37. The stock has a market cap of $9.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.14, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.96. 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 announced its quarterly 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. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%. The business had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.4%. AES's dividend payout ratio is presently 49.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. HSBC cut their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Barclays boosted their price objective on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Citigroup cut their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group cut AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.67.

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.