HighTower Advisors LLC Sells 85,654 Shares of The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• HighTower Advisors reduced its AES stake by 20.8% in the second quarter, selling 85,654 shares and retaining 326,554 shares valued at approximately $4.8 million.
• Institutional ownership remains high at 93.13%, with BlackRock and Bank of New York Mellon each establishing sizable new positions during the quarter.
• AES beat quarterly earnings expectations, reporting $0.60 in adjusted EPS versus the $0.45 estimate, while maintaining a “Hold” consensus rating and paying a quarterly dividend of $0.176, yielding about 4.8% annually.

HighTower Advisors LLC lowered its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 20.8% during the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 326,554 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 85,654 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC's holdings in AES were worth $4,787,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in AES during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $722,429,000. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new position in AES in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $97,056,000. FNY Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of AES by 49,950.0% during the second quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 100,100 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,467,000 after acquiring an additional 99,900 shares during the last quarter. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. acquired a new position in shares of AES during the second quarter worth $1,106,000. Finally, Kryger Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter worth $31,702,000. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Separately, Weiss Ratings upgraded AES from a "hold (c)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report on Monday, August 17th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $15.71.

AES Price Performance

AES opened at $14.79 on Friday. The AES Corporation has a 1 year low of $12.33 and a 1 year high of $17.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.93, a current ratio of 0.75 and a quick ratio of 0.67. The company has a market capitalization of $10.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.65 and a beta of 0.97. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $14.76 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $14.62.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, August 4th. The utilities provider reported $0.60 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $3.42 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.11 billion. AES had a net margin of 14.30% and a return on equity of 20.69%. As a group, analysts anticipate that The AES Corporation will post 2.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 14th. Investors of record on Friday, July 31st were paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 31st. AES's payout ratio is currently 26.72%.

AES Company Profile

The AES Corporation NYSE: AES is a global energy company that develops, owns and operates electricity generation and distribution businesses. Its portfolio includes renewable energy projects, natural gas and other power-generation facilities, battery energy storage systems, and utility operations. AES serves utilities, commercial and industrial customers, and other energy users through long-term power supply arrangements and related services.

The company has increasingly focused on renewable energy and energy infrastructure, including solar, wind and storage projects designed to support the transition to lower-carbon electricity systems.

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