The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Sold by Benjamin Edwards Inc.

Benjamin Edwards Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 5.5% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 76,297 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 4,421 shares during the period. Benjamin Edwards Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $982,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 19.5% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 49,173,626 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $632,865,000 after purchasing an additional 8,027,426 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 16,895,678 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $216,862,000 after acquiring an additional 381,761 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its position in AES by 64.2% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,948,807 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $205,261,000 after purchasing an additional 6,238,087 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in AES by 2.8% during the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,879,259 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $88,536,000 after purchasing an additional 185,020 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AES. Seaport Res Ptn cut shares of AES from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, March 3rd. Mizuho lowered their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays cut their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 27th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One 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.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $13.71.

AES Trading Up 4.8 %

Shares of AES opened at $10.80 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $11.19 and its two-hundred day moving average is $12.18. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $9.57 and a twelve month 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 firm has a market capitalization of $7.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.50, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.52%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s payout ratio is currently 38.04%.

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.