Whittier Trust Co. Acquires 7,734 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Whittier Trust Co. grew its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 646,208 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 7,734 shares during the quarter. Whittier Trust Co.’s holdings in AES were worth $12,956,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its position in AES by 92.4% during the 2nd quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 720 shares in the last quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 2nd quarter valued at about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in shares of AES by 102.3% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares during the period. Riverview Trust Co bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have weighed in on the stock. Barclays increased their price target on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.57.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES traded down $0.27 on Monday, hitting $17.20. The company had a trading volume of 4,994,691 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,113,952. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $17.99 and a two-hundred day moving average of $18.35. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $13.55 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $12.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.31 and a beta of 1.07.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The firm 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%. The business’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.21 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.01%. AES’s dividend payout ratio 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.