North Star Investment Management Corp. Sells 161,006 Shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

North Star Investment Management Corp. reduced its stake in shares of The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 89.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 18,000 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 161,006 shares during the quarter. North Star Investment Management Corp.'s holdings in AES were worth $224,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of AES. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. grew its stake in AES by 190.3% during the fourth quarter. SRS Capital Advisors Inc. now owns 2,412 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 1,581 shares in the last quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. grew its stake in AES by 79.5% during the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC grew its stake in AES by 93.3% during the fourth quarter. WR Wealth Planners LLC now owns 2,837 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after acquiring an additional 1,369 shares in the last quarter. CVA Family Office LLC grew its stake in AES by 200.6% during the first quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $40,000 after acquiring an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC grew its stake in AES by 760.4% during the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 2,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently weighed in on AES. Mizuho cut their target price on shares of AES from $16.00 to $15.00 and set an "outperform" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Bank of America upgraded shares of AES from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and increased their price objective for the company from $11.00 to $13.00 in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, HSBC lowered their price objective on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have assigned a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, AES currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.22.

AES Trading Down 0.2%

Shares of AES stock traded down $0.02 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $10.51. 18,230,604 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 12,963,052. The AES Corporation has a 12-month low of $9.46 and a 12-month high of $20.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.84, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42. The company's 50-day moving average price is $10.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $11.44. The firm has a market capitalization of $7.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 5.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.41 and a beta of 0.96.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.37 by ($0.10). AES had a return on equity of 18.06% and a net margin of 10.67%. The firm had revenue of $2.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.13 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.60 earnings per share. AES's revenue for the quarter was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share 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.