The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company Has $48.23 Million Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 4.7% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,404,088 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 108,913 shares during the quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company owned approximately 0.34% of AES worth $48,226,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 82,956 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its position in shares of AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in shares of AES by 3.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after acquiring an additional 141,565 shares during the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC increased its position in AES by 5.8% during the third quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,522,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $70,658,000 after buying an additional 193,755 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in AES by 16.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,084,000 after buying an additional 444,252 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays boosted their price target on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho lowered their price target 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 initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Bank of America started coverage on AES in a research report on Monday. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $20.22.

AES Trading Up 3.3 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $12.99 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $16.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $17.76. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $12.53 and a 1 year high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.60 earnings per share. On average, research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.31%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 47.92%.

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.