Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Makes New $780,000 Investment in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System purchased a new position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 40,500 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $780,000.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. New York Life Investment Management LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 0.7% in the third quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 96,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after purchasing an additional 665 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 18.0% in the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 4,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares during the period. Simplicity Solutions LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 0.5% in the third quarter. Simplicity Solutions LLC now owns 168,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,554,000 after purchasing an additional 793 shares during the period. River Street Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 7.1% in the third quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 12,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 836 shares during the period. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its position in shares of AES by 2.0% in the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 52,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AES. Barclays lowered their price objective on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group reduced their target price on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Mizuho started coverage on AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.13.

AES Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of AES opened at $17.21 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $16.52 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.77. The stock has a market cap of $12.23 billion, a PE ratio of 52.15 and a beta of 1.08. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $23.81. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. AES had a return on equity of 38.76% and a net margin of 2.12%. The company had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

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 dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.01%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s payout ratio is 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.