BTG Pactual Asset Management US LLC Takes Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

BTG Pactual Asset Management US LLC acquired a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 129,718 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,669,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in AES by 190.3% during the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC increased its position in shares of AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Covestor Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 601.5% during the fourth quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 5,745 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after purchasing an additional 4,926 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 18,047.1% during the 4th quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 6,136 shares during the last quarter. Finally, EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in AES by 95.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,295 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 3,080 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have commented on AES. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Susquehanna cut their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a “hold” rating and issued a $10.00 price objective (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $13.67.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $10.30 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.15, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average is $11.33 and its two-hundred day moving average is $13.23.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 6.84%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.54%.

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.