Federated Hermes Inc. Takes Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Federated Hermes Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 44,813 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $863,000.

A number of other large investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. New York Life Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 0.7% during the third quarter. New York Life Investment Management LLC now owns 96,702 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,470,000 after acquiring an additional 665 shares during the period. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its position in AES by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 4,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares in the last quarter. River Street Advisors LLC grew its position in AES by 7.1% during the third quarter. River Street Advisors LLC now owns 12,548 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 836 shares in the last quarter. M&T Bank Corp grew its position in AES by 2.0% during the third quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 52,644 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $800,000 after purchasing an additional 1,010 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Private Trust Co. NA grew its position in AES by 68.8% during the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently commented on AES. Argus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Barclays lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. Mizuho assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price for the company. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research report on Monday, March 25th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.13.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES opened at $18.17 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 0.68, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.58 and a 200 day simple moving average of $16.92. The company has a market cap of $12.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 55.05 and a beta of 1.08. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $23.16.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.36 billion. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. AES’s quarterly revenue was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.49 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.80%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

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.