The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Shares Bought by Cetera Investment Advisers

Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 30.4% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 192,421 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 44,812 shares during the quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers’ holdings in AES were worth $2,390,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 19.5% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after purchasing an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of AES by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in shares of AES during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $121,627,000. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of AES by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,559,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $84,426,000 after buying an additional 628,911 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES opened at $12.85 on Thursday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.82 and a 200-day simple moving average of $11.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.15 billion, a PE ratio of 9.05, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.96. The AES Corporation has a 1 year low of $9.46 and a 1 year high of $20.30.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.39 by $0.12. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.97 billion. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%. The firm’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.5%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have weighed in on the company. HSBC decreased their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 9th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.67.

About AES

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.