The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) Short Interest Down 5.3% in September

The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in September. As of September 30th, there was short interest totalling 27,190,000 shares, a decrease of 5.3% from the September 15th total of 28,720,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 8,110,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.4 days.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on AES in a research note on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price target on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.43.

AES Stock Up 1.3 %

Shares of NYSE:AES opened at $17.47 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $12.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.26 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $17.99 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.34. AES has a 52-week low of $13.55 and a 52-week high of $22.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63.

AES (NYSE:AES) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.22 billion. AES had a net margin of 6.07% and a return on equity of 32.74%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that AES will post 1.9 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Friday, November 1st will be paid a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.95%. AES’s payout ratio is currently 95.83%.

Institutional Trading of AES

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in AES. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. raised its position in shares of AES by 145.2% in the 4th quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 145,108 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $2,793,000 after buying an additional 85,926 shares during the period. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of AES during the 4th quarter worth about $215,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in AES in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $260,000. CWM LLC lifted its position in AES by 11.5% during the first quarter. CWM LLC now owns 26,494 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $475,000 after buying an additional 2,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. grew its stake in AES by 690.9% during the first quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 7,118 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $127,000 after buying an additional 6,218 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.