North Star Asset Management Inc. Has $19.50 Million Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

North Star Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 7.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,515,444 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 101,514 shares during the quarter. North Star Asset Management Inc. owned approximately 0.21% of AES worth $19,504,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 19.5% in the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 35.7% during the 4th 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. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 2.3% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $216,862,000 after acquiring an additional 381,761 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 64.2% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $205,261,000 after acquiring an additional 6,238,087 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $121,627,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded AES from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a research report on Saturday. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.22.

AES Stock Down 3.5%

AES stock traded down $0.35 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $9.72. The company had a trading volume of 17,568,977 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,433,520. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.46 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The firm's fifty day moving average is $10.98 and its 200-day moving average is $11.74.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company's quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

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.