Sound Shore Management Inc. CT Acquires 730,178 Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Sound Shore Management Inc. CT lifted its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 13.6% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 6,097,946 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 730,178 shares during the period. AES comprises 2.7% of Sound Shore Management Inc. CT's portfolio, making the stock its 21st biggest holding. Sound Shore Management Inc. CT owned approximately 0.86% of AES worth $75,736,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Community Trust & Investment Co. boosted its holdings in AES by 37.4% in the 1st quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,619,000 after purchasing an additional 79,355 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 2.5% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $10,235,000 after acquiring an additional 20,109 shares in the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in AES during the first quarter worth $1,172,000. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 13.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,543 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $15,780,000 after buying an additional 148,772 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 39.6% in the first quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 1,349,118 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $16,756,000 after purchasing an additional 382,843 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on AES. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research note on Saturday, May 24th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given 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, AES presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.67.

AES Stock Down 0.0%

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.01 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $13.80. 7,837,142 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 18,724,774. The AES Corporation has a 12 month low of $9.46 and a 12 month high of $20.30. The company has a market cap of $9.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.50, a P/E/G ratio of 1.86 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.78, a current ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. The company's 50-day moving average price is $11.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.26.

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 the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a net margin of 10.67% and a return on equity of 18.06%. The business had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. The business's revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.10%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio is 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.