Cerity Partners LLC Buys 6,538 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 8.1% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 86,770 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,538 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 10.2% in the fourth quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC now owns 170,487 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,282,000 after purchasing an additional 15,747 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $322,000. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY lifted its position in shares of AES by 3.7% in the fourth quarter. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY now owns 174,700 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,363,000 after purchasing an additional 6,223 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 9.9% in the fourth quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 184,704 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,556,000 after purchasing an additional 16,688 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Edmp Inc. bought a new stake in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $209,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AES has been the topic of a number of research reports. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Mizuho began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Thursday. They set a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.13.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $16.41 on Friday. The AES Co. has a one year low of $11.43 and a one year high of $24.33. The company has a market cap of $11.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.71 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $16.47 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $16.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.49 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.21%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 209.10%.

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.