MQS Management LLC Takes $304,000 Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

MQS Management LLC bought a new position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 17,289 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $304,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of AES. Capital World Investors increased its position in shares of AES by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,373,460,000 after acquiring an additional 31,009,718 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors boosted its stake in AES by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares during the period. M&G Plc bought a new position in AES during the 1st quarter worth about $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake 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 purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 2.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,608,773,000 after buying an additional 1,929,523 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AES. Barclays dropped their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $18.90 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The stock 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 50-day moving average is $17.40 and its 200-day moving average is $18.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

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

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.