Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. Sells 27,277 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc. reduced its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 53.1% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 24,045 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 27,277 shares during the quarter. Benjamin F. Edwards & Company Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $462,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AES. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 38.6% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 36,821,650 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $559,689,000 after acquiring an additional 10,256,781 shares during the last quarter. CI Investments Inc. lifted its position in AES by 18,505.6% in the third quarter. CI Investments Inc. now owns 2,030,429 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $30,862,000 after buying an additional 2,019,516 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in AES by 24.2% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 7,611,339 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $115,692,000 after buying an additional 1,484,052 shares during the last quarter. Barclays PLC lifted its position in AES by 114.1% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 2,677,405 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $40,697,000 after buying an additional 1,426,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Strs Ohio bought a new stake in AES in the third quarter worth $14,531,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $19.38 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $13.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.92 and a beta of 1.08. The company has a current ratio of 0.78, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $22.85. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $16.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $17.11.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. The firm had revenue of $3.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. AES had a return on equity of 36.23% and a net margin of 4.40%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.22 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.56%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Mizuho assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Thursday, April 18th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $21.00 price target for the company. UBS Group lowered their price target on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, March 25th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price 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.