Vanguard Group Inc. Has $1.09 Billion Holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Vanguard Group Inc. reduced its stake in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 7.2% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 88,125,918 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 6,805,550 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. owned 12.38% of AES worth $1,094,524,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Community Trust & Investment Co. increased its holdings in shares of AES by 37.4% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Lewis Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of AES in the first quarter valued at about $1,172,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 2.5% in the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 824,080 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $10,235,000 after acquiring an additional 20,109 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of AES by 13.3% in 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 acquiring an additional 148,772 shares during the period. Finally, Foundry Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of AES by 39.6% in the first quarter. Foundry Partners LLC now owns 1,349,118 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $16,756,000 after acquiring an additional 382,843 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

AES Price Performance

NYSE AES traded down $0.10 during trading on Thursday, hitting $12.96. 4,957,356 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 15,712,654. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $12.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.37. The AES Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $9.46 and a fifty-two week high of $20.30. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.74 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.46. The company has a market cap of $9.22 billion, a PE ratio of 9.12, a P/E/G ratio of 1.54 and a beta of 0.96.

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

AES Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 1st will be paid a $0.176 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. This represents a $0.70 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 5.4%. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on AES shares. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research report on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup cut 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. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of AES from a "sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, August 2nd. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $24.67.

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.