Bank of Montreal Can Trims Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Bank of Montreal Can decreased its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 30.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 940,142 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 415,872 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned approximately 0.13% of AES worth $12,100,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in AES by 190.3% in the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 1,581 shares during the period. WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its stake in AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. AlphaQuest LLC grew its holdings in AES by 18,047.1% in the fourth quarter. AlphaQuest LLC now owns 6,170 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $79,000 after purchasing an additional 6,136 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of AES by 95.8% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,295 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $81,000 after purchasing an additional 3,080 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 39.1% in the 4th quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 6,978 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $90,000 after purchasing an additional 1,961 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on AES shares. Susquehanna dropped their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Barclays cut their price objective on shares of AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, January 27th. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Mizuho decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn downgraded AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $13.67.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded up $0.21 on Friday, hitting $10.17. The company had a trading volume of 10,475,732 shares, compared to its average volume of 11,325,347. The stock has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.06, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81. 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 stock's 50-day simple moving average is $11.30 and its 200 day simple moving average is $13.00. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $9.86 and a 12-month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts expect 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. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be given a dividend of $0.176 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.92%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.54%.

AES Company 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.