The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Bought by Graham Capital Management L.P.

Graham Capital Management L.P. grew its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 56.8% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 133,419 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 48,322 shares during the quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P.'s holdings in AES were worth $1,717,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 19.5% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $632,865,000 after acquiring an additional 8,027,426 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 35.7% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in AES by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $216,862,000 after purchasing an additional 381,761 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised 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 worth $205,261,000 after buying an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of AES by 2.8% during the fourth quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,259 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $88,536,000 after buying an additional 185,020 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Mizuho decreased their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. HSBC cut their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.33.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded down $0.12 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $12.40. 14,631,495 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,911,386. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.57 and a 1-year 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 has a market cap of $8.83 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.61, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $12.04.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.68%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.04%.

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.