Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 26,902 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Principal Financial Group Inc. trimmed its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 803,971 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 26,902 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of AES worth $10,347,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Kerusso Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 77.3% during the 4th quarter. Kerusso Capital Management LLC now owns 274,560 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $3,534,000 after buying an additional 119,682 shares in the last quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of AES in the 4th quarter worth $538,000. New York State Teachers Retirement System lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 1.0% in the 4th quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System now owns 729,602 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $9,390,000 after purchasing an additional 7,001 shares in the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 24.9% in the 4th quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 15,171 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $195,000 after purchasing an additional 3,027 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stephens Inc. AR lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 67.1% in the 4th quarter. Stephens Inc. AR now owns 332,012 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $4,273,000 after purchasing an additional 133,308 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on AES. Bank of America began coverage on AES in a report on Monday, November 25th. They issued an “underperform” rating and a $11.00 target price on the stock. Susquehanna cut their target price on AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, November 5th. HSBC started coverage on AES in a research report on Friday, December 13th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $17.00 price target for the company. Hsbc Global Res raised AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 13th. Finally, Mizuho lowered 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $18.80.

AES Trading Up 11.6 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $11.59 on Friday. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $9.88 and a 1 year high of $22.21. The firm has a market cap of $8.24 billion, a PE ratio of 8.05, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.99. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $11.54 and a 200-day moving average price of $14.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a current ratio of 0.85 and a quick ratio of 0.80.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its earnings results on Friday, February 28th. The utilities provider reported $0.54 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.34 by $0.20. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $2.96 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.73 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, May 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, May 1st will be issued a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 6.08%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 1st. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.