Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. Buys 20,545 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 10.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 220,964 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,545 shares during the quarter. Nomura Asset Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in AES were worth $4,433,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Cetera Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AES by 77.8% in the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 7,897 shares during the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its stake in AES by 9.1% in the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,621 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares during the last quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC bought a new position in AES during the second quarter worth about $239,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its stake in AES by 38.3% in the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 795,493 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $13,977,000 after buying an additional 220,098 shares during the period. Finally, Everpar Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of AES in the second quarter valued at approximately $232,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Trading Down 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $13.35 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $9.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.27, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $14.99 and its 200 day simple moving average is $17.15. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $12.53 and a 1 year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. AES’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts anticipate 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 given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.27%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.92%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

AES has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Bank of America started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. Finally, HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Friday. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price on the stock. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

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.