GAMMA Investing LLC Sells 11,523 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

GAMMA Investing LLC lowered its holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 44.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 14,139 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 11,523 shares during the quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $182,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale grew its holdings in shares of AES by 161.8% during the second quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 107,016 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $2,035,000 after buying an additional 66,145 shares during the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC boosted its stake 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 purchasing an additional 195,460 shares during the last quarter. M&G PLC increased its holdings in AES by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 28.4% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 257,368 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $5,163,000 after purchasing an additional 56,879 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 1.3% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,694,239 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $134,286,000 after buying an additional 82,956 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Susquehanna dropped their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC started coverage on shares of AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target on the stock. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 18th. Bank of America initiated coverage on AES in a research note on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Mizuho decreased their price target on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $19.30.

AES Stock Down 4.2 %

Shares of NYSE AES opened at $12.40 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80. The stock has a market capitalization of $8.82 billion, a PE ratio of 8.61, a P/E/G ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 1.00. The AES Co. has a one year low of $12.09 and a one year high of $22.21. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $13.39 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.22.

AES (NYSE:AES) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The business had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.60 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.95 EPS for the current year.

AES Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 31st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. 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 dividend yield of 5.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 31st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 48.61%.

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.