Channing Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Channing Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 355,637 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,361 shares during the quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC owned approximately 0.05% of AES worth $6,846,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC raised its stake in AES by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $559,689,000 after acquiring an additional 10,256,781 shares during the period. Electron Capital Partners LLC increased its stake in AES by 9.3% in the 3rd quarter. Electron Capital Partners LLC now owns 8,060,064 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $122,513,000 after buying an additional 686,719 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in AES by 24.2% during the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,611,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $115,692,000 after acquiring an additional 1,484,052 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of AES by 0.5% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,108,260 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $92,846,000 after acquiring an additional 29,488 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in AES by 2.5% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,728,296 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $87,070,000 after purchasing an additional 140,149 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Up 0.7 %

Shares of AES stock traded up $0.14 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $18.81. 5,951,566 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,276,236. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $16.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $17.02. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a current ratio of 0.78 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $23.07. The stock has a market cap of $13.37 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.93 and a beta of 1.08.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The business had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Investors of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be given a $0.1725 dividend. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. AES’s payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the topic of several research reports. Mizuho started coverage on AES in a report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 target price on the stock. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. UBS Group reduced their price target on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday, April 9th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.13.

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.