The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Stock Position Decreased by Fifth Third Bancorp

Fifth Third Bancorp lowered its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 32.7% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 52,092 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 25,289 shares during the period. Fifth Third Bancorp's holdings in AES were worth $670,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the business. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in AES by 5,143.7% during the fourth quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 76,977 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $991,000 after acquiring an additional 75,509 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC grew its holdings in AES by 34.6% during the 3rd quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 760,775 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $15,261,000 after buying an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. Leibman Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AES in the fourth quarter worth $2,375,000. M&G PLC lifted its position in shares of 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. Finally, Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV boosted its stake in shares of AES by 12.1% during the fourth quarter. Hudson Valley Investment Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 406,443 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $5,231,000 after acquiring an additional 43,792 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AES. HSBC initiated coverage on shares of AES in a report on Friday, December 13th. They set a "buy" rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Susquehanna dropped their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Bank of America assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Monday, November 25th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $11.00 price target for the company. Finally, Mizuho reduced their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, AES presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $18.80.

AES Stock Down 0.0 %

NYSE AES traded down $0.01 on Thursday, hitting $11.15. 4,035,017 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,275,588. The company has a market capitalization of $7.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.56 and a beta of 1.00. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.63 and a 200 day moving average of $15.54. The company has a current ratio of 0.85, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21. The AES Co. has a twelve month low of $10.81 and a twelve month 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, beating analysts' consensus estimates 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 the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. AES's quarterly revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.95 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be paid a dividend of $0.176 per share. This is a positive change from AES's previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.31%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 31st. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.