Prudential Financial Inc. Sells 1,621,480 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Prudential Financial Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 38.4% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 2,595,759 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 1,621,480 shares during the quarter. Prudential Financial Inc. owned approximately 0.37% of AES worth $33,407,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Millburn Ridgefield Corp acquired a new stake in AES in the 3rd quarter worth about $28,000. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in shares of 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 period. WR Wealth Planners LLC boosted its stake in shares of AES by 93.3% in the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after buying an additional 1,369 shares during the period. Brooklyn Investment Group acquired a new stake in AES during the third quarter worth approximately $63,000. Finally, AlphaQuest LLC increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 6,136 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on AES shares. Mizuho reduced their price objective on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Seaport Res Ptn lowered shares of AES from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. Hsbc Global Res upgraded shares of AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Susquehanna reduced their target price on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $16.63.

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AES Price Performance

Shares of NYSE AES traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $12.42. 11,081,428 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 10,994,778. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $9.88 and a twelve month high of $22.21. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $11.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $13.81. 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 company has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a PE ratio of 8.62, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. The company 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 business posted $0.73 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast 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. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 1st. AES's payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

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.