Korea Investment CORP Reduces Stock Position in The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Korea Investment CORP has reduced its stake in The AES Corporation by 42.9%, now owning 409,342 shares valued at approximately $5.08 million.
• In recent analyst updates, Citigroup and Jefferies Financial Group have set lower target prices for AES, with Citigroup reducing its target from $23.00 to $14.00.
• AES has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, translating to an annualized yield of 5.2% as the company continues to maintain a dividend payout ratio of 49.30%.

Korea Investment CORP trimmed its position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 42.9% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 409,342 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 307,224 shares during the period. Korea Investment CORP owned about 0.06% of AES worth $5,084,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in AES in the fourth quarter worth about $121,627,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in AES by 35.7% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $367,499,000 after buying an additional 7,519,129 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in AES by 30.4% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $258,224,000 after buying an additional 4,842,149 shares in the last quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP bought a new position in AES in the fourth quarter worth about $48,327,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake in AES by 130.4% in the fourth quarter. Deutsche Bank AG now owns 3,950,924 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $50,848,000 after buying an additional 2,236,418 shares in the last quarter. 93.13% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NYSE:AES traded up $0.04 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $13.38. 4,512,935 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,300,452. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $12.49 and a two-hundred day moving average of $11.52. The AES Corporation has a 52-week low of $9.46 and a 52-week high of $20.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $9.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.96.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The utilities provider reported $0.51 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.39 by $0.12. AES had a net margin of 8.42% and a return on equity of 19.02%. The firm had revenue of $2.86 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $2.97 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.3%. AES's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 49.30%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently issued reports on AES. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, May 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Saturday, August 2nd. Argus reaffirmed a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Susquehanna raised their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have given a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.67.

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.