National Bank of Canada FI Lowers Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

National Bank of Canada FI lowered its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 498,308 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 124,275 shares during the quarter. National Bank of Canada FI owned approximately 0.07% of AES worth $9,996,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cetera Advisors LLC boosted its position in AES by 77.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 18,045 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $324,000 after acquiring an additional 7,897 shares in the last quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in AES by 9.1% during the 2nd quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 12,621 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Fiduciary Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $239,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in AES by 38.3% during the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 795,493 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $13,977,000 after acquiring an additional 220,098 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ellsworth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $992,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Barclays raised their price objective on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday, October 21st. Evercore ISI raised AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 18th. Susquehanna lowered their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $11.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Mizuho lowered their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $20.22.

AES Stock Performance

AES stock traded down $0.07 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $13.52. The stock had a trading volume of 12,027,422 shares, compared to its average volume of 9,235,547. The stock has a market cap of $9.61 billion, a PE ratio of 9.44, a P/E/G ratio of 0.68 and a beta of 1.02. 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 firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $15.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $17.23. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $12.53 and a 52-week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The company's revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.21%. This is a positive change from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES's payout ratio is 47.92%.

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.