WASHINGTON TRUST Co Boosts Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

WASHINGTON TRUST Co raised its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 17,133.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 191,463 shares of the utilities provider's stock after buying an additional 190,352 shares during the period. WASHINGTON TRUST Co's holdings in AES were worth $3,686,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of AES. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 83,790,219 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $2,155,923,000 after acquiring an additional 1,285,423 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 1.9% during the second quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 46,239,885 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $958,553,000 after purchasing an additional 844,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 38.6% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $559,689,000 after purchasing an additional 10,256,781 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.1% during the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 34,486,785 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $714,911,000 after purchasing an additional 693,158 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 2.1% during the first quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 13,753,238 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $330,415,000 after purchasing an additional 283,075 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on AES. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Monday. Argus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $21.57.

AES Stock Up 3.9 %

AES traded up $0.67 during midday trading on Thursday, hitting $17.92. 11,782,900 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,528,751. The company has a market cap of $12.74 billion, a PE ratio of 52.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.07. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $16.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $25.74.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.85%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

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.