Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd Sells 27,400 Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd lowered its position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) by 72.1% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,600 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 27,400 shares during the quarter. Central Asset Investments & Management Holdings HK Ltd’s holdings in AES were worth $132,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Russell Investments Group Ltd. increased its stake in shares of AES by 10.4% during the 1st quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 1,069,155 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $13,279,000 after purchasing an additional 100,379 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 22.3% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,453,840 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $18,057,000 after purchasing an additional 264,836 shares during the last quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board increased its stake in shares of AES by 3.1% during the 1st quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 190,103 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,361,000 after purchasing an additional 5,643 shares during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth approximately $18,357,000. Finally, Entropy Technologies LP purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 1st quarter worth approximately $2,140,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

NYSE AES opened at $12.81 on Tuesday. The AES Corporation has a 52-week low of $9.46 and a 52-week high of $20.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a market capitalization of $9.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.02, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 0.96. The company has a fifty day moving average of $11.99 and a 200-day moving average of $11.34.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.5%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Citigroup reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna lifted their price objective on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AES from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on shares of AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.67.

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.