The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES) Shares Sold by Xponance Inc.

Xponance Inc. lessened its holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 38.4% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 62,498 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 38,983 shares during the quarter. Xponance Inc.'s holdings in AES were worth $776,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 449.8% in the first quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 944,251 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $11,728,000 after buying an additional 772,515 shares in the last quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 10.2% in the first quarter. Rock Point Advisors LLC now owns 924,172 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $11,478,000 after buying an additional 85,690 shares in the last quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 5.0% in the first quarter. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC now owns 24,752 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $307,000 after buying an additional 1,173 shares in the last quarter. Greenleaf Trust lifted its stake in shares of AES by 40.8% in the first quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 17,652 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $219,000 after buying an additional 5,112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp lifted its position in AES by 105.6% during the first quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 137,277 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $1,705,000 after purchasing an additional 70,511 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have commented on AES shares. HSBC reduced their target price on shares of AES from $15.00 to $14.00 in a report on Monday, May 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a report on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group cut shares of AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and reduced their target price for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 9th. Finally, Argus reissued a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.22.

AES Price Performance

AES stock traded up $0.17 during trading on Friday, hitting $13.36. 9,221,144 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 13,893,894. The AES Corporation has a 52 week low of $9.46 and a 52 week high of $20.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.42, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.84. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $11.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $11.23. The stock has a market capitalization of $9.51 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.26, a P/E/G ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 0.95.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 1st. The utilities provider reported $0.27 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.13 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.60 EPS. AES's revenue was down 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 EPS for the current fiscal year.

AES Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.176 dividend. This represents a $0.70 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, August 1st. AES's payout ratio is currently 38.04%.

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.