Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC Invests $567,000 in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Kovitz Investment Group Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 28,246 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $567,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale lifted its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of 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 period. M&G PLC increased its position in shares of AES by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank raised its holdings in AES by 28.4% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 257,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,163,000 after buying an additional 56,879 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in AES by 1.3% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Down 0.5 %

AES stock opened at $13.53 on Friday. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.53 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $15.10 and its 200 day moving average price is $17.20. 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 capitalization of $9.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.39, a PEG ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.01.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.60 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Investors of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is a boost from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.20%. AES’s payout ratio is presently 48.61%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AES shares. Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Mizuho cut their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.22.

About AES

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.