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

Quest Partners LLC lessened its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 87.4% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,841 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 19,659 shares during the quarter. Quest Partners LLC’s holdings in AES were worth $50,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in AES by 2.2% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 89,725,232 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $1,608,773,000 after buying an additional 1,929,523 shares during the period. Capital International Investors raised its holdings in shares of AES by 11.4% during the first 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 lifted its position in AES by 76.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 71,348,566 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,373,460,000 after purchasing an additional 31,009,718 shares during the period. M&G Plc purchased a new stake in AES in the first quarter valued at $123,272,000. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of 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 buying an additional 2,670,001 shares during the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

AES Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of AES stock opened at $19.26 on Thursday. The AES Co. has a 1-year low of $11.43 and a 1-year high of $22.21. The company has a market cap of $13.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.63 and a beta of 1.07. 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 50 day simple moving average of $17.37 and a 200-day simple moving average of $17.98.

AES (NYSE:AES) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $2.94 billion for 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 revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.21 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that The AES Co. will post 1.91 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 1st were paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, August 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.58%. AES’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 95.83%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on AES. Barclays lowered their target price on AES from $23.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a research report on Wednesday, September 11th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $20.00 price objective on the stock. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $21.50.

AES Company 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.