Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV Buys 43,792 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV lifted its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 12.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 406,443 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares during the period. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV’s holdings in AES were worth $5,231,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 8.9% during the 2nd quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 58,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,033,000 after buying an additional 4,799 shares during the period. Natixis Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 21.5% in the second quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 66,742 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,173,000 after purchasing an additional 11,828 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of AES by 21.1% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 216,518 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,804,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares during the period. Private Advisor Group LLC lifted its position in shares of AES by 169.5% during the 2nd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 42,201 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $741,000 after purchasing an additional 26,543 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Choreo LLC bought a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $376,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently commented on AES shares. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. HSBC assumed coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Susquehanna reduced their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $19.30.

AES Stock Down 4.2 %

NYSE AES opened at $12.40 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $12.09 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $13.31 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.20. The company has a market capitalization of $8.82 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.61, a PEG ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be given a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. This is a positive change from AES’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.68%. AES’s payout ratio is 48.61%.

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.