Quarry LP Trims Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Quarry LP decreased its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 106,402 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 11,625 shares during the quarter. Quarry LP’s holdings in AES were worth $1,369,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Stephens Inc. AR increased its position in AES by 67.1% during the fourth quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,273,000 after buying an additional 133,308 shares during the period. UMB Bank n.a. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 5,143.7% in the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares during the period. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd purchased a new stake in AES in the 4th quarter valued at $489,000. Leibman Financial Services Inc. acquired a new stake in AES during the 4th quarter worth $2,375,000. Finally, Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its position in AES by 47.1% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 74,174 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $946,000 after purchasing an additional 23,764 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on AES shares. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho dropped their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $10.00 price target (down from $15.00) on shares of AES in a report on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Susquehanna cut their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $13.71.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $10.05 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $7.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. The AES Co. has a one year low of $9.57 and a one year high of $22.21. The business has a fifty day moving average of $11.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $12.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 7.00%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.54%.

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.