The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Holdings Increased by Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV

Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 12.1% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares during the period. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV owned approximately 0.06% of AES worth $5,231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its stake in AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in AES by 1.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,513,917 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $330,125,000 after buying an additional 181,975 shares in the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in AES by 1.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after acquiring an additional 82,956 shares during the period. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in AES by 12.7% in the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its position in shares of AES by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $77,000,000 after purchasing an additional 892,500 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently commented on AES shares. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho cut their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Bank of America began coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Barclays dropped their price target on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.30.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $12.40 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $8.82 billion, a PE ratio of 8.61, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $13.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $16.20. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $12.09 and a 52 week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.68%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

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.