Banco Santander S.A. Sells 184,196 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Banco Santander S.A. reduced its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 42.7% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 247,383 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 184,196 shares during the quarter. Banco Santander S.A.'s holdings in AES were worth $4,963,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd FI purchased a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter valued at about $30,746,000. Zimmer Partners LP boosted its holdings in AES by 482.8% during the 1st quarter. Zimmer Partners LP now owns 1,865,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $33,439,000 after acquiring an additional 1,545,000 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in AES by 169.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $43,002,000 after acquiring an additional 1,348,195 shares during the period. Hsbc Holdings PLC boosted its holdings in AES by 41.1% during the 2nd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,898,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $51,293,000 after acquiring an additional 844,888 shares during the period. Finally, TCW Group Inc. boosted its holdings in AES by 45.8% during the 2nd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 2,639,694 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $46,379,000 after acquiring an additional 828,840 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Down 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE:AES traded down $0.21 during trading on Friday, hitting $13.04. The stock had a trading volume of 29,558,267 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,925,779. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $12.97 and a 12 month high of $22.21. The company has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10. The firm's fifty day moving average is $16.96 and its 200 day moving average is $17.95. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $3.29 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.60 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.29%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 47.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho dropped their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays increased their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Monday, October 21st. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $20.00 price objective for the company. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $21.38.

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.