Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC lowered its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 84.6% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 32,598 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 178,499 shares during the quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC's holdings in AES were worth $420,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in AES. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of AES by 18.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 38,651,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $775,354,000 after acquiring an additional 5,960,546 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in AES by 30.3% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 3,838,500 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $77,000,000 after purchasing an additional 892,500 shares during the period. Bridgewater Associates LP bought a new position in AES in the third quarter worth $17,390,000. HighTower Advisors LLC lifted its position in AES by 53.0% during the third quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 1,596,850 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $32,031,000 after buying an additional 553,311 shares during the period. Finally, Empower Advisory Group LLC grew its position in shares of AES by 12.5% in the 4th quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,961,827 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $50,989,000 after buying an additional 439,493 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES traded up $0.47 on Thursday, reaching $12.30. The company's stock had a trading volume of 16,774,413 shares, compared to its average volume of 16,121,738. The AES Co. has a 12-month low of $9.88 and a 12-month high of $22.21. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.54, a PEG ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $11.27 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $14.19.

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AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted 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. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 prior year, the business posted $0.73 EPS. Research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.72%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's payout ratio is 29.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently commented on AES. Hsbc Global Res raised shares of AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays dropped their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 27th. Mizuho reduced their price target on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a "buy" rating and a $17.00 price objective on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have given a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $18.30.

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.