Vanguard Group Inc. Sells 697,603 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 87,795,709 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 697,603 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 12.36% of AES worth $1,690,067,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in shares of AES by 18.0% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 4,378 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $78,000 after buying an additional 668 shares during the last quarter. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. grew its stake in shares of AES by 13.0% during the fourth quarter. Concourse Financial Group Securities Inc. now owns 7,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $135,000 after buying an additional 806 shares during the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA grew its stake in shares of AES by 68.8% in the fourth quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 2,669 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 1,088 shares during the last quarter. Glassman Wealth Services grew its stake in shares of AES by 186.1% in the fourth quarter. Glassman Wealth Services now owns 1,928 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $37,000 after purchasing an additional 1,254 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arizona State Retirement System grew its stake in shares of AES by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Arizona State Retirement System now owns 184,041 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,433 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms recently issued reports on AES. Mizuho raised their target price on AES from $21.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, May 17th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research note on Monday, March 25th. UBS Group cut their target price on AES from $20.00 to $19.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays cut their target price on AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, March 14th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $22.00 price objective on shares of AES in a report on Tuesday, April 9th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, AES presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.50.

AES Price Performance

AES stock opened at $18.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $19.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $18.00. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.35 and a beta of 1.11. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.04, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 0.78.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Friday, May 3rd. The utilities provider reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.16. AES had a net margin of 4.40% and a return on equity of 36.23%. The firm had revenue of $3.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.20 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.22 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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.