Viking Fund Management LLC Raises Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Viking Fund Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 186.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 630,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 410,000 shares during the period. Viking Fund Management LLC owned approximately 0.09% of AES worth $7,825,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AES. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in AES by 190.3% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. increased its position in AES by 79.5% during the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 93.3% during the 4th quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $37,000 after buying an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its position in AES by 760.4% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 2,958 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 235.4% in the 1st quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 3,595 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,523 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Mizuho dropped their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group cut AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and dropped their price target for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna dropped their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, HSBC reduced their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.22.

AES Trading Up 3.1%

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.32 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $10.49. 16,976,298 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,544,713. The stock has a market cap of $7.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.28, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $10.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.60. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.46 and a fifty-two week high of $21.12. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results 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 return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. AES's revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.