AQR Capital Management LLC Raises Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 97.6% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 595,459 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 294,167 shares during the period. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $10,462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Rise Advisors LLC raised its position in AES by 92.4% during the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the second quarter worth about $28,000. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of AES by 102.3% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 898 shares during the last quarter. Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in AES in the 1st quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $33,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. Barclays decreased their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI raised shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.50.

AES Trading Down 1.7 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $19.89 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $11.43 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The stock has a market cap of $14.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.63 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $17.74 and its 200-day moving average price is $18.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.97, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.21 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.47%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 95.83%.

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.