Hsbc Holdings PLC Sells 2,440,942 Shares of The AES Corporation $AES

Key Points

• Hsbc Holdings PLC significantly reduced its stake in The AES Corporation by 75.4% during the first quarter, leaving it with approximately 0.11% of the company's shares valued at $9.9 million.
• Regarding analyst ratings, AES has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" with an average target price of $24.67.
• The AES Corporation declared a quarterly dividend of $0.176, yielding approximately 5.2%, with a payout ratio of 49.30%.

Hsbc Holdings PLC lessened its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 75.4% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 797,943 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 2,440,942 shares during the quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC owned about 0.11% of AES worth $9,898,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Optiver Holding B.V. raised its stake in AES by 79.5% in the fourth quarter. Optiver Holding B.V. now owns 2,711 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201 shares in the last quarter. Garde Capital Inc. acquired a new position in AES in the first quarter valued at about $35,000. Headlands Technologies LLC acquired a new position in AES in the first quarter valued at about $40,000. CVA Family Office LLC raised its stake in AES by 200.6% in the first quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $40,000 after purchasing an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. Finally, McIlrath & Eck LLC raised its stake in AES by 760.4% in the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 2,958 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on AES shares. Citigroup decreased their target price on AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Susquehanna lifted their target price on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research report on Monday, July 21st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on AES from $14.00 to $15.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 22nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and decreased their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, HSBC decreased their target price on AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $24.67.

AES Trading Up 0.6%

Shares of NYSE:AES traded up $0.08 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $13.56. 8,383,864 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,440,557. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.55, a P/E/G ratio of 1.62 and a beta of 0.96. 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 business's 50-day moving average price is $12.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $11.58. The AES Corporation has a 12 month low of $9.46 and a 12 month high of $20.30.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st were issued a dividend of $0.176 per share. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.2%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 1st. AES's payout ratio is 49.30%.

AES Company 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.