The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Stake Boosted by Fiduciary Financial Group LLC

Fiduciary Financial Group LLC increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 24.7% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 22,262 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,403 shares during the period. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $268,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Seed Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in AES by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Seed Wealth Management Inc. now owns 14,665 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $189,000 after purchasing an additional 1,500 shares in the last quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC increased its stake in AES by 8.7% in the 4th quarter. Wallace Advisory Group LLC now owns 24,190 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $311,000 after purchasing an additional 1,943 shares in the last quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth about $2,375,000. AdvisorNet Financial Inc grew its stake in AES by 31.7% during the 4th quarter. AdvisorNet Financial Inc now owns 86,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,107,000 after acquiring an additional 20,726 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Czech National Bank grew its stake in AES by 6.4% during the 4th quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 154,159 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,984,000 after acquiring an additional 9,337 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Mizuho lowered their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price target on AES from $23.00 to $17.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, December 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.30.

AES Stock Down 0.6 %

AES opened at $11.78 on Thursday. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $13.06 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.99. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.57 and a twelve month 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 has a market cap of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00.

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

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.97%. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is 48.61%.

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.