The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Stock Position Lowered by Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC

Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC cut its stake in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 91.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 23,817 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 247,683 shares during the period. Mount Yale Investment Advisors LLC's holdings in AES were worth $307,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in AES by 18.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $775,354,000 after purchasing an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in shares of AES by 169.5% in the third quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 2,143,688 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $43,002,000 after buying an additional 1,348,195 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its holdings in shares of AES by 30.3% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $77,000,000 after buying an additional 892,500 shares during the period. Bridgewater Associates LP purchased a new position in AES in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $17,390,000. Finally, M&G PLC grew its position in AES by 12.7% in the third quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $130,235,000 after acquiring an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Susquehanna lowered their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America started coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. HSBC initiated coverage on AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Hsbc Global Res upgraded AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Mizuho reduced their target price on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $18.80.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded up $0.13 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $11.28. The company had a trading volume of 13,069,975 shares, compared to its average volume of 13,762,076. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 0.85 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $12.63 and a 200 day moving average price of $15.54. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.02 billion, a PE ratio of 7.83, a P/E/G ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $10.81 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.60 earnings per share. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This is a positive change from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 6.24%. AES's dividend payout ratio is 47.92%.

AES 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.