Focus Partners Wealth Cuts Stock Holdings in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Focus Partners Wealth trimmed its stake in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 66.4% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 37,673 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 74,338 shares during the quarter. Focus Partners Wealth's holdings in AES were worth $485,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Empyrean Capital Partners LP bought a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter worth about $48,327,000. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc raised its position in shares of AES by 32.7% during the fourth quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 1,739,558 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $22,388,000 after acquiring an additional 428,711 shares during the last quarter. Deutsche Bank AG raised its position in shares of AES by 130.4% during the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,950,924 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $50,848,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236,418 shares during the last quarter. Diligent Investors LLC raised its position in shares of AES by 12.2% during the fourth quarter. Diligent Investors LLC now owns 14,719 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $189,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Collar Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter worth approximately $2,522,000. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Citigroup lowered their target price on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Bank of America upgraded AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $11.00 to $13.00 in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays lowered their target price on AES from $17.00 to $12.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Monday, January 27th. Jefferies Financial Group downgraded AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Susquehanna decreased their price objective on AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set a "positive" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.22.

AES Stock Up 3.9%

Shares of NYSE AES traded up $0.38 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $10.01. 22,736,547 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 12,385,158. The company has a market cap of $7.13 billion, a PE ratio of 6.95, a P/E/G ratio of 0.82 and a beta of 0.94. The AES Co. has a one year low of $9.46 and a one year high of $22.21. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $11.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $11.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.21, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a current ratio of 0.85.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.37 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.13 billion. AES had a net margin of 8.34% and a return on equity of 27.30%. The firm's quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.60 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that The AES Co. will post 1.93 EPS for the current year.

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.