Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 30,911 Shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. lessened its holdings in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES) by 20.7% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 118,256 shares of the utilities provider’s stock after selling 30,911 shares during the quarter. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in AES were worth $2,372,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&G PLC lifted its holdings in shares of AES by 12.7% during the 3rd quarter. M&G PLC now owns 6,511,760 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $130,235,000 after purchasing an additional 732,457 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its stake in AES by 3.1% in the second quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 4,769,785 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $83,805,000 after buying an additional 141,565 shares in the last quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC boosted its holdings in shares of AES by 5.8% in the third quarter. Empower Advisory Group LLC now owns 3,522,334 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $70,658,000 after buying an additional 193,755 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in shares of AES by 16.5% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 3,132,744 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $55,084,000 after acquiring an additional 444,252 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its holdings in shares of AES by 41.1% during the second quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 2,898,119 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $51,293,000 after acquiring an additional 844,888 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Down 1.6 %

AES stock opened at $13.04 on Friday. 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 company’s 50-day moving average is $16.85 and its 200-day moving average is $17.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.27 billion, a PE ratio of 9.06 and a beta of 1.10. The AES Co. has a fifty-two week low of $12.97 and a fifty-two week high of $22.21.

AES (NYSE:AES) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.60 by $0.11. AES had a return on equity of 27.30% and a net margin of 8.34%. The firm had revenue of $3.29 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.60 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, November 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, November 1st were issued a $0.1725 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, November 1st. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.29%. AES’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.92%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

AES has been the subject of a number of research reports. Jefferies Financial Group assumed coverage on AES in a report on Wednesday, September 11th. They set a “buy” rating and a $20.00 target price for the company. Mizuho decreased their price objective on AES from $24.00 to $16.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays boosted their target price on AES from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Monday, October 21st. Susquehanna decreased their price target on shares of AES from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “positive” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Finally, Evercore ISI upgraded shares of AES to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 18th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, AES currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.38.

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.