GSA Capital Partners LLP Decreases Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

GSA Capital Partners LLP cut its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 68.7% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 18,185 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 39,928 shares during the quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP's holdings in AES were worth $365,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of AES by 161.8% in the 2nd quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $2,035,000 after buying an additional 66,145 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its stake in AES by 12.7% during the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares during the last quarter. Summit Global Investments purchased a new stake in AES during the third quarter valued at approximately $816,000. Lazard Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 178.5% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 689,879 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $12,369,000 after purchasing an additional 442,184 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV increased its position in shares of AES by 75.9% during the 3rd quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 362,651 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $7,275,000 after purchasing an additional 156,504 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Stock Down 1.6 %

AES stock traded down $0.21 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $13.04. 29,558,267 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, 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 debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85. The company has a market cap of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 9.02 and a beta of 1.10. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $16.96 and a two-hundred day moving average of $17.95.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its 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. 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 in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. AES's revenue was down 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on AES. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Mizuho cut their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a "buy" rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target 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.