Thrivent Financial for Lutherans Purchases 520,725 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 237.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 739,995 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 520,725 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans’ holdings in AES were worth $9,524,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of AES. Millburn Ridgefield Corp bought a new stake in shares of AES during the third quarter valued at approximately $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of AES by 190.3% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC increased 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 during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group bought a new stake in AES in the third quarter valued at $63,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC grew its position in AES by 18,047.1% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $79,000 after acquiring an additional 6,136 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn cut AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price target for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $18.30.

AES Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of AES opened at $13.07 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.30 billion, a PE ratio of 9.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $13.97.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.54%.

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.