Fmr LLC Lowers Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Fmr LLC lessened its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 14.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 41,146,200 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 7,034,311 shares during the quarter. Fmr LLC owned about 5.79% of AES worth $825,393,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Rise Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 92.4% during the second quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,499 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 720 shares during the period. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in AES during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $28,000. Cromwell Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 59.1% during the 3rd quarter. Cromwell Holdings LLC now owns 1,723 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 640 shares in the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 102.3% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 1,776 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 898 shares during the period. Finally, nVerses Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a report on Monday. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price for the company. Susquehanna lowered their target price on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Mizuho dropped their price objective on shares of AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $20.22.

AES Trading Up 3.3 %

NYSE AES opened at $13.00 on Thursday. The company has a 50-day moving average of $16.60 and a 200-day moving average of $17.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $12.53 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $9.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.73 and a beta of 1.10.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. AES’s revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.94 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.31%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 47.92%.

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.