AdvisorNet Financial Inc Buys 20,726 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

by · The Markets Daily

AdvisorNet Financial Inc boosted its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES – Free Report) by 31.7% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 86,034 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 20,726 shares during the period. AdvisorNet Financial Inc’s holdings in AES were worth $1,107,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Get Our Latest Research Report on AES

AES Trading Up 1.5 %

AES stock opened at $11.87 on Wednesday. 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 AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.57 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $13.18 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $16.06. The company has a market capitalization of $8.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.24, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00.

AES (NYSE:AES – Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. 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 paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.93%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

AES Profile

(Free Report)

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.

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