Gamco Investors INC. ET AL Grows Stock Position in The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Gamco Investors INC. ET AL increased its stake in The AES Corporation by 3.8% during the first quarter, owning 592,200 shares valued at $7.35 million.
• AES reported earnings per share of $0.51 for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, though its revenue was down 3.0% year-over-year at $2.86 billion.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, representing an annualized dividend yield of 5.3% and a payout ratio of 49.3%.

Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 3.8% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 592,200 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 21,700 shares during the period. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL owned 0.08% of AES worth $7,355,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in AES by 30.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $258,224,000 after buying an additional 4,842,149 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $121,627,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its stake in AES by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,134,771 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $88,614,000 after buying an additional 255,512 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in AES by 10.6% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,559,912 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $84,426,000 after acquiring an additional 628,911 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Trading Up 0.6%

AES stock traded up $0.08 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $13.56. The company had a trading volume of 8,383,864 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,440,557. The firm has a market cap of $9.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.82. The AES Corporation has a 1 year low of $9.46 and a 1 year high of $20.30. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $12.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.58.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The company had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side 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. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio is 49.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AES. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Saturday, August 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the stock a "positive" rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Barclays lifted their target price on AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Finally, HSBC dropped their target price on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Two equities research 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 company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.67.

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.