Orbis Allan Gray Ltd Purchases 4,930,252 Shares of The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Orbis Allan Gray Ltd increased its stake in The AES Corporation by 21.8% in the first quarter, owning approximately 27.5 million shares valued at around $341.8 million.
• Institutional ownership of AES is significant, with 93.13% of the company's stock held by hedge funds and other institutional investors, indicating strong confidence in the company's performance.
• The AES Corporation reported earnings of $0.51 per share, surpassing analysts' expectations, despite a 3% decline in quarterly revenues compared to the previous year.

Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 21.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 27,518,952 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 4,930,252 shares during the quarter. AES accounts for about 2.0% of Orbis Allan Gray Ltd's investment portfolio, making the stock its 18th largest holding. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd owned 3.87% of AES worth $341,785,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vident Advisory LLC grew its position in AES by 19.5% during the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 20,105 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $250,000 after buying an additional 3,274 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC grew its position in AES by 11.3% during the first quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,415,300 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $17,578,000 after buying an additional 143,750 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its position in AES by 0.9% during the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,451,243 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $30,444,000 after buying an additional 21,760 shares during the period. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp grew its position in AES by 12.7% during the first quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 157,693 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,959,000 after buying an additional 17,722 shares during the period. Finally, Gamco Investors INC. ET AL grew its position in AES by 3.8% during the first quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 592,200 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,355,000 after buying an additional 21,700 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, May 27th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price target for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, AES presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $13.23. The company had a trading volume of 6,074,726 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,114,690. The AES Corporation has a 52-week low of $9.46 and a 52-week high of $20.30. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $12.79 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.63. 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 company has a market capitalization of $9.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.32, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.92.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

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

AES 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.