Providence Capital Advisors LLC Purchases 100,498 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Providence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 26.9% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 473,481 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 100,498 shares during the period. Providence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $6,094,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Cerity Partners LLC grew its holdings in AES by 15.3% during the third quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 167,223 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,354,000 after purchasing an additional 22,187 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its position in AES by 11.6% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 86,513 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,735,000 after purchasing an additional 9,017 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can lifted its position in shares of AES by 22.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 1,356,014 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $27,215,000 after buying an additional 244,648 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its stake in shares of AES by 4.7% during the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 2,404,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $48,226,000 after buying an additional 108,913 shares during the last quarter. Finally, D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in AES by 16.8% in the 3rd quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 32,257 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $647,000 after buying an additional 4,643 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have commented on AES. Mizuho reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $16.63.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $12.45 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $8.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.64, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $11.34 and a 200-day moving average of $13.88.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.65%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.