Yousif Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Yousif Capital Management LLC cut its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 3.4% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 90,068 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 3,217 shares during the period. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $1,734,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 15.5% during the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 679,615 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $10,330,000 after buying an additional 91,247 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 370.1% during the 3rd quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 116,537 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,770,000 after buying an additional 91,749 shares during the period. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 81.2% during the 3rd quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 351,220 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,339,000 after buying an additional 157,421 shares during the period. Quadrature Capital Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 54.8% during the 3rd quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 273,365 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $4,157,000 after acquiring an additional 96,808 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 16.7% during the 3rd quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 352,276 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,355,000 after acquiring an additional 50,341 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES stock opened at $18.17 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $12.91 billion, a PE ratio of 55.05 and a beta of 1.08. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.58 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a quick ratio of 0.61 and a current ratio of 0.68. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $23.16.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.36 billion. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.49 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.80%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 209.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on AES. UBS Group reduced their target price on shares of AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Morgan Stanley restated an “overweight” rating and set a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a report on Monday, March 25th. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.