866,913 Shares in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Bought by Bridgewater Associates LP

Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm purchased 866,913 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $17,390,000. Bridgewater Associates LP owned approximately 0.12% of AES at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its stake in AES by 161.8% in the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after acquiring an additional 66,145 shares in the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC grew its position in AES by 34.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,261,000 after purchasing an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its stake in AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of AES by 1.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares during the period. Finally, Summit Global Investments acquired a new position in AES in the 3rd quarter valued at about $816,000. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

AES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Bank of America started coverage on AES in a research note on Monday. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Finally, Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.22.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.00 on Thursday. 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 AES Co. has a 1 year low of $12.53 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.60 and its 200-day simple moving average is $17.79. The firm has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.60 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were given a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is presently 47.92%.

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.