Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC Takes $1.19 Million Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Marathon Trading Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 92,698 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,193,000.

Other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 830,873 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $16,667,000 after buying an additional 28,043 shares during the last quarter. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in AES during the 3rd quarter valued at $347,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 9.5% in the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 147,861 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,966,000 after purchasing an additional 12,841 shares in the last quarter. Atria Investments Inc raised its stake in shares of AES by 97.4% in the third quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 86,553 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,736,000 after purchasing an additional 42,707 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 3.9% during the third quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 1,596,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $32,016,000 after purchasing an additional 59,735 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $11.79 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $11.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.29. 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 52-week low of $9.88 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a PE ratio of 8.18, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. Analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.97%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $18.30.

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.