The AES Corporation $AES Stock Position Raised by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Key Points

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its stake in The AES Corporation by 25% during the first quarter, holding a total of approximately 7.1 million shares worth $88.4 million.
• AES reported an earnings per share of $0.51 for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, but its revenue decreased by 3% compared to the previous year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, translating to an annual yield of 5.5%, with a payout ratio of 49.3%.

Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 25.0% during the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,115,438 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 1,421,899 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owned approximately 1.00% of AES worth $88,374,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd raised its stake in shares of AES by 21.8% in the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 27,518,952 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $341,785,000 after acquiring an additional 4,930,252 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 30.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $258,224,000 after purchasing an additional 4,842,149 shares during the last quarter. Zimmer Partners LP grew its holdings in shares of AES by 8,650.0% during the fourth quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,750,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $22,522,000 after purchasing an additional 1,730,000 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of AES during the first quarter worth about $18,357,000. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 531.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,581,448 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $19,215,000 after buying an additional 1,331,097 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Susquehanna boosted their price target on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.67.

AES Stock Down 2.4%

AES stock traded down $0.31 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $12.72. The stock had a trading volume of 8,821,664 shares, compared to its average volume of 14,901,787. The AES Corporation has a 1-year low of $9.46 and a 1-year high of $20.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The company has a market capitalization of $9.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.96, a PEG ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.92. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $13.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.78.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 business had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.5%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.