Lazard Asset Management LLC Has $3.07 Million Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 18.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 238,502 shares of the utilities provider's stock after acquiring an additional 37,034 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC's holdings in AES were worth $3,069,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Optiver Holding B.V. lifted its position in AES by 79.5% in the 4th quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC raised its holdings 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 valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Signature Estate & Investment Advisors LLC now owns 14,082 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $181,000 after purchasing an additional 1,436 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB raised its holdings in shares of AES by 22.4% during the 4th quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB now owns 8,472 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $109,000 after purchasing an additional 1,551 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 0.7% during the 4th quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 222,539 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,864,000 after purchasing an additional 1,575 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and raised their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, April 24th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.22.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES traded down $0.48 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $11.23. The company had a trading volume of 25,905,115 shares, compared to its average volume of 12,016,642. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $7.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $11.90. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $9.57 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st were given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.27%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.04%.

About AES

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.