The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company has increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.1% during the fourth quarter, as revealed in the company’s most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor now owns 2,429,483 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, having purchased an additional 25,395 shares during the quarter. This stake is valued at $31,267,000, representing approximately 0.34% of AES.
Other institutional investors have also been actively buying and selling AES shares. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in AES during the third quarter, worth about $139,000. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings by 12.8% in the third quarter, now owning 2,930,901 shares valued at $58,794,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake by 3.5% during the third quarter, now holding 830,873 shares worth $16,667,000. Douglas Lane & Associates LLC increased its holdings by 0.9% in the fourth quarter, now owning 3,541,203 shares valued at $45,575,000. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its holdings by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, now owning 406,443 shares worth $5,231,000.
Hedge funds and other institutional investors collectively own 93.13% of AES’s stock. Recent analyst ratings have been mixed, with Bank of America upgrading AES from “underperform” to “neutral” and setting a target price of $13.00. Susquehanna maintained a “positive” rating but lowered its target price to $15.00. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating with a $10.00 price target. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES to “strong sell,” while Barclays maintained an “overweight” rating with a $12.00 target price. The consensus rating among analysts is “Moderate Buy” with an average target price of $13.71.
AES stock opened at $9.94 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80, and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. AES’s 12-month low and high are $9.57 and $22.21, respectively. The stock has a market cap of $7.07 billion, a PE ratio of 6.90, and a beta of 0.81. The 50-day and 200-day moving average prices are $11.25 and $12.42, respectively.
AES recently reported earnings of $0.27 per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37. The company had revenue of $2.93 billion, down 5.2% from the same quarter last year. The utilities provider announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, payable on May 15th to stockholders of record on May 1st, representing a 7.08% dividend yield.
