Clayton Partners LLC Boosts Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Clayton Partners LLC boosted its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.3% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 185,922 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,334 shares during the quarter. AES accounts for approximately 1.7% of Clayton Partners LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 24th biggest position. Clayton Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $2,393,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Stephens Inc. AR raised its position in AES by 67.1% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,273,000 after buying an additional 133,308 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $991,000 after buying an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC raised its position in AES by 34.6% in the 3rd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $15,261,000 after buying an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth about $489,000. Finally, Leibman Financial Services Inc. purchased a new position in AES in the 4th quarter worth about $2,375,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Mizuho cut their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Finally, Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Trading Up 0.3 %

AES stock opened at $12.32 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $9.88 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The company has a market capitalization of $8.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.55, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.23 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.12.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.71%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.