King Luther Capital Management Corp Buys New Stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

King Luther Capital Management Corp bought a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 155,635 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,735,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the business. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 20.6% during the 2nd quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. now owns 81,830 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,438,000 after acquiring an additional 13,957 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 472.2% during the 2nd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 404,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $7,108,000 after acquiring an additional 333,847 shares in the last quarter. MQS Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $304,000. Kentucky Retirement Systems lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems now owns 53,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $941,000 after acquiring an additional 2,699 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in AES by 41.1% in the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,898,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,293,000 after buying an additional 844,888 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Price Performance

AES opened at $18.90 on Friday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $17.40 and a 200-day moving average of $18.03. The company has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.43 and a 1-year high of $22.21. 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 announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.21 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were given 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 presently 95.83%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, 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. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target 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.