Proficio Capital Partners LLC Acquires New Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Proficio Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor bought 31,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $402,000.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the 3rd quarter worth $28,000. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at about $63,000. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in shares of AES in the third quarter valued at about $139,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of AES by 160.3% in the third quarter. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC now owns 6,983 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $140,000 after purchasing an additional 4,300 shares during the period. Finally, Kestra Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth about $95,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. HSBC assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna cut their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays cut their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Mizuho cut their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.30.

AES Trading Up 4.8 %

NYSE:AES opened at $11.79 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 8.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.32 and a 200 day moving average price of $14.29. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.73 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.54%.

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.