Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Has $32.02 Million Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 3.9% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,596,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 59,735 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $32,016,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Capital International Investors increased its stake in AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of AES by 2.2% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after buying an additional 1,929,523 shares during the last quarter. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI bought a new stake in shares of AES during the second quarter worth about $30,746,000. Zimmer Partners LP raised its holdings in shares of AES by 482.8% in the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,865,000 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $33,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its stake in AES by 169.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $43,002,000 after purchasing an additional 1,348,195 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the subject of several analyst reports. Barclays increased their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Finally, Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.38.

AES Price Performance

AES opened at $13.97 on Friday. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $13.27 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $17.25 and a 200 day moving average of $18.09. 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 cap of $9.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.70 and a beta of 1.10.

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, topping the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.94%. AES’s payout ratio is 47.92%.

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.