Baird Financial Group Inc. Has $2.70 Million Holdings in The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Baird Financial Group Inc. reduced its holdings in The AES Corporation by 9.0%, selling 21,360 shares, and now owns 217,002 shares, valued at approximately $2.7 million.
• AES reported a quarterly earnings per share (EPS) of $0.51, exceeding the consensus estimate of $0.39, while revenue declined by 3.0% year-over-year to $2.86 billion.
• The firm recently announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 5.4%, with a payout ratio of 49.30%.

Baird Financial Group Inc. cut its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 9.0% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 217,002 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 21,360 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.'s holdings in AES were worth $2,695,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the business. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd lifted its holdings in AES by 21.8% in the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 27,518,952 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $341,785,000 after purchasing an additional 4,930,252 shares during the period. Vident Advisory LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 19.5% in the first quarter. Vident Advisory LLC now owns 20,105 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $250,000 after buying an additional 3,274 shares during the period. Evergreen Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 11.3% in the first quarter. Evergreen Capital Management LLC now owns 1,415,300 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $17,578,000 after buying an additional 143,750 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 0.9% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,451,243 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $30,444,000 after buying an additional 21,760 shares during the period. Finally, OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 12.7% during the first quarter. OMERS ADMINISTRATION Corp now owns 157,693 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $1,959,000 after purchasing an additional 17,722 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, May 27th. Susquehanna boosted 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, Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Stock Up 0.2%

Shares of AES traded up $0.03 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $12.88. 12,349,586 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,267,119. The company has a market cap of $9.17 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.92. The AES Corporation has a 52 week low of $9.46 and a 52 week high of $20.30. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $13.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.74.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES's payout ratio is currently 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.