State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Cuts Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 29.4% in the second quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 255,708 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 106,700 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in AES were worth $4,493,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of AES. Capital World Investors boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,373,460,000 after purchasing an additional 31,009,718 shares in the last quarter. Capital International Investors raised its position in AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares during the last quarter. M&G Plc bought a new position in AES during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $123,272,000. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its position in AES by 70.8% during the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after purchasing an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in AES by 2.2% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,608,773,000 after purchasing an additional 1,929,523 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 2.5 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $19.01 on Tuesday. The AES Co. has a 52-week low of $11.43 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.97. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.40 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $17.31 and a 200-day moving average price of $17.93.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a return on equity of 32.74% and a net margin of 6.07%. The company had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.21 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 1st were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 95.83%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on AES. Seaport Res Ptn lowered AES from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 21st. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target for the company. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.50.

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.