Virtu Financial LLC Takes Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm acquired 36,791 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $473,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new position in AES in the third quarter valued at about $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 190.3% in the 4th quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its stake in AES by 93.3% during the 4th quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares during the last quarter. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new position in AES during the third quarter valued at approximately $63,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC raised its holdings in AES by 18,047.1% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 target price for the company. Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Finally, Mizuho decreased their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $17.56.

AES Price Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $12.67 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The firm has a market cap of $9.02 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.80, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $9.88 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $11.32 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.90.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.07 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

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.