Avantax Advisory Services Inc. Has $1.13 Million Position in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Avantax Advisory Services Inc. increased its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 104.0% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 90,902 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after buying an additional 46,344 shares during the quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $1,129,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. LPL Financial LLC raised its position in AES by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 519,975 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $6,692,000 after acquiring an additional 38,964 shares in the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in AES by 19.3% during the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 54,449 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $689,000 after acquiring an additional 8,809 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its position in AES by 20.3% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 1,439,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $18,524,000 after acquiring an additional 242,942 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in AES by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $216,862,000 after acquiring an additional 381,761 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. bought a new position in AES during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $2,602,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on AES shares. HSBC cut their price objective on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Susquehanna lifted their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $24.67.

AES Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of AES stock opened at $13.24 on Friday. The AES Corporation has a 1 year low of $9.46 and a 1 year high of $20.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.30. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The business had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. AES’s revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. AES’s payout ratio is 38.04%.

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.