Clayton Partners LLC Has $2 Million Stake in The AES Corporation $AES

Clayton Partners LLC decreased its position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 13.3% in the first quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 161,193 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 24,729 shares during the period. AES accounts for 1.7% of Clayton Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 28th biggest holding. Clayton Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $2,002,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in AES by 35.7% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in AES by 30.4% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $258,224,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,149 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in AES during the 4th quarter worth $121,627,000. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in AES by 3.7% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 7,134,771 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $88,614,000 after acquiring an additional 255,512 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in AES by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 6,559,912 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $84,426,000 after acquiring an additional 628,911 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE:AES opened at $13.49 on Friday. The AES Corporation has a 12-month low of $9.46 and a 12-month high of $20.30. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.60 billion, a PE ratio of 9.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.60 and a beta of 0.96. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $12.60 and a 200 day moving average price of $11.55.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently commented on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group lowered shares of AES from a “hold” rating to an “underperform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Susquehanna upped their price objective 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. 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, August 2nd. Finally, Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.67.

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.