Symmetry Investments LP Raises Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Symmetry Investments LP raised its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 0.9% during the second quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 211,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,922 shares during the quarter. Symmetry Investments LP’s holdings in AES were worth $3,716,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in AES by 161.8% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,035,000 after buying an additional 66,145 shares in the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 1.9% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 124,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,237,000 after acquiring an additional 2,273 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 735.2% during the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 617,387 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $11,070,000 after purchasing an additional 543,464 shares in the last quarter. New Century Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in AES during the first quarter valued at $1,235,000. Finally, Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its position in shares of AES by 20.1% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 839,343 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,049,000 after buying an additional 140,610 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of AES opened at $18.90 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.01. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. AES’s revenue was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.21 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.