Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Purchases 56,990 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. grew its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 284.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 76,995 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 56,990 shares during the quarter. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,353,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in AES. Capital World Investors increased its holdings in shares of AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after acquiring an additional 31,009,718 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its holdings in shares of AES by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after acquiring an additional 7,969,594 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new position in shares of AES in the 1st quarter valued at $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 70.8% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after acquiring an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after acquiring an additional 1,929,523 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $18.90 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.40 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.99. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Barclays dropped their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.50.

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.