Legal & General Group Plc Has $39.44 Million Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Legal & General Group Plc reduced its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 24.8% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,064,393 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,007,999 shares during the quarter. Legal & General Group Plc owned approximately 0.43% of AES worth $39,439,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in AES by 190.3% during 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 last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC raised 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 during the period. AlphaQuest LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 18,047.1% during the 4th 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 position in AES by 95.8% in the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 6,295 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $81,000 after buying an additional 3,080 shares during the period. Finally, Cape Investment Advisory Inc. grew its position in shares of AES by 39.1% during the fourth quarter. Cape Investment Advisory Inc. now owns 6,978 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $90,000 after acquiring an additional 1,961 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:AES traded up $0.21 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $10.17. 10,475,732 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,325,347. 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's fifty day simple moving average is $11.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $13.00. The AES Co. has a 52 week low of $9.86 and a 52 week high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $7.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.81.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.34 by $0.20. The business had revenue of $2.96 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.07 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.92%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's payout ratio is 29.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Mizuho decreased their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America raised shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Jefferies Financial Group reissued a "hold" rating and set a $10.00 target price (down previously from $15.00) on shares of AES in a research note on Thursday, April 10th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price target on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, March 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $13.67.

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.