Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Boosts Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc boosted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 32.7% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,739,558 shares of the utilities provider's stock after purchasing an additional 428,711 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.24% of AES worth $22,388,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $216,862,000 after acquiring an additional 381,761 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of AES by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $205,261,000 after acquiring an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,259 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $88,536,000 after acquiring an additional 185,020 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.05 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $12.50. 23,328,121 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 11,900,502. 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 AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.57 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The business's 50-day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $12.04. The company has a market cap of $8.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.68, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for 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 business's quarterly revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.04%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AES. HSBC dropped their price target on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on AES from $16.00 to $14.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 24th. Susquehanna dropped their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. Jefferies Financial Group restated a "hold" rating and issued a $10.00 target price (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their target price on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.33.

AES Company 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.