AXQ Capital LP Boosts Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

AXQ Capital LP increased its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 526.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 91,867 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 77,203 shares during the period. AXQ Capital LP’s holdings in AES were worth $1,182,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Empowered Funds LLC raised its holdings in AES by 8.0% during the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 11,179 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $224,000 after acquiring an additional 830 shares during the period. Rockland Trust Co. grew its position in shares of AES by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. Rockland Trust Co. now owns 16,010 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $206,000 after purchasing an additional 1,110 shares in the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 3.5% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 34,067 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $683,000 after purchasing an additional 1,141 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millburn Ridgefield Corp purchased a new position in shares of AES during the third quarter valued at about $28,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock opened at $13.07 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $11.28 and a 200-day moving average price of $13.99. 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 fifty-two week low of $9.88 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company has a market capitalization of $9.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.54%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho cut their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays dropped their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $18.30.

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.