The AES Corporation $AES Shares Sold by Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY

Key Points

• Miller Howard Investments Inc. reduced its holdings in The AES Corporation by 73.2% in Q2, selling 152,147 shares and retaining 55,795 shares worth approximately $587,000.
• AES reported earnings of $0.51 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analyst expectations, despite a 3.0% decline in revenue year-over-year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.176 per share, translating to an annualized dividend yield of 5.4%.

Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY trimmed its position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 73.2% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 55,795 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 152,147 shares during the period. Miller Howard Investments Inc. NY's holdings in AES were worth $587,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in AES. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its holdings in AES by 25.0% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,115,438 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $88,374,000 after buying an additional 1,421,899 shares during the period. Community Trust & Investment Co. increased its stake in AES by 37.4% during the 1st quarter. Community Trust & Investment Co. now owns 291,418 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $3,619,000 after purchasing an additional 79,355 shares in the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC bought a new position in AES during the first quarter worth about $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in AES by 2.5% in the 1st quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $10,235,000 after purchasing an additional 20,109 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in AES by 13.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,270,543 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $15,780,000 after buying an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. Susquehanna boosted 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. 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 report on Tuesday, May 27th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating, two have issued a Hold rating and two have given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.67.

AES Trading Up 0.6%

AES stock traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $13.03. The stock had a trading volume of 13,125,678 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,950,602. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The company has a fifty day moving average of $13.17 and a 200 day moving average of $11.83. The AES Corporation has a 52-week low of $9.46 and a 52-week high of $20.30. The firm has a market cap of $9.28 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.55 and a beta of 0.92.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Shareholders of record on Friday, August 1st were paid a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.4%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 1st. AES's payout ratio is 49.30%.

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.