Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. Decreases Holdings in The AES Corporation $AES

Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. decreased its position in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 96.7% during the first quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,690 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 195,697 shares during the period. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd.'s holdings in AES were worth $83,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new stake in AES in the fourth quarter worth $121,627,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of AES by 35.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 28,571,119 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $367,499,000 after acquiring an additional 7,519,129 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of AES by 30.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 20,790,956 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $258,224,000 after acquiring an additional 4,842,149 shares during the last quarter. Empyrean Capital Partners LP bought a new position in shares of AES during the fourth quarter valued at about $48,327,000. Finally, Deutsche Bank AG raised its stake 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 valued at $50,848,000 after acquiring an additional 2,236,418 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

AES Trading Up 2.9%

NYSE:AES traded up $0.3750 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $13.3450. 1,480,547 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,445,668. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.40, a PEG ratio of 1.58 and a beta of 0.96. The AES Corporation has a 52 week low of $9.46 and a 52 week high of $20.30. The firm's 50 day moving average is $12.35 and its two-hundred day moving average is $11.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.74, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46.

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

AES Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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 5.3%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently commented on AES. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and reduced their price target for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on shares of AES from $12.00 to $14.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Two equities research 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 issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $24.67.

AES Profile

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.