South Dakota Investment Council Purchases 4,800 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

South Dakota Investment Council increased its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 14.5% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 37,969 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 4,800 shares during the quarter. South Dakota Investment Council’s holdings in AES were worth $731,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of AES. Private Trust Co. NA boosted its position in AES by 68.8% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC raised its holdings in AES by 57.8% in the 3rd quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 3,550 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $54,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 35.2% during the third quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 3,710 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $56,000 after acquiring an additional 965 shares during the period. Allworth Financial LP lifted its holdings in AES by 133.7% during the 4th quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 3,110 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $60,000 after purchasing an additional 1,779 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Parkside Financial Bank & Trust boosted its stake in AES by 267.5% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 3,587 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $69,000 after purchasing an additional 2,611 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on AES. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price target on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. UBS Group reduced their price target on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Finally, Argus reissued a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.13.

AES Trading Down 1.4 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $17.13 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.61, a current ratio of 0.68 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.17 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.90 and a beta of 1.08. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $23.81. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $16.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.77.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.03%. AES’s payout ratio is 209.10%.

AES Company 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.