The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Shares Sold by Clayton Partners LLC

Clayton Partners LLC decreased its position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 183,008 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 2,566 shares during the period. AES accounts for approximately 2.6% of Clayton Partners LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 17th largest position. Clayton Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $3,215,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in AES by 2.2% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,608,773,000 after acquiring an additional 1,929,523 shares during the period. Capital International Investors increased its position in shares of AES by 11.4% during the 1st quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 77,641,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,392,110,000 after purchasing an additional 7,969,594 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors raised its holdings in AES by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after buying an additional 31,009,718 shares during the period. M&G Plc acquired a new position in AES in the first quarter valued at about $123,272,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in shares of AES by 70.8% during the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 6,441,980 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $124,008,000 after acquiring an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

AES Stock Performance

AES opened at $18.90 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63, a current ratio of 0.97 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $17.40 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.01. The AES Co. has a 12 month low of $11.43 and a 12 month high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The firm had revenue of $2.94 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.22 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.21 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 95.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

AES has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Jefferies Financial Group began coverage on shares of AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. Barclays dropped their price objective on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Finally, Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.50.

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.