Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Has $1.62 Million Stock Holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank decreased its holdings in The AES Corporation (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 57.0% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 130,515 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 172,975 shares during the period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank's holdings in AES were worth $1,621,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of AES. Optiver Holding B.V. boosted its position in shares of AES by 79.5% in the 4th 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 during the period. Garde Capital Inc. purchased a new stake in AES during the 1st quarter worth about $35,000. CVA Family Office LLC grew its holdings in shares of AES by 200.6% during the first quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 3,250 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $40,000 after buying an additional 2,169 shares in the last quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC boosted its position in AES by 760.4% during the fourth quarter. McIlrath & Eck LLC now owns 3,347 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 2,958 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rothschild Investment LLC lifted its stake in shares of AES by 235.4% during the 1st quarter. Rothschild Investment LLC now owns 3,595 shares of the utilities provider's stock worth $45,000 after purchasing an additional 2,523 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 93.13% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

AES has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup decreased their target price on shares of AES from $23.00 to $14.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 9th. Susquehanna raised their price objective on AES from $15.00 to $16.00 and gave the company a "positive" rating in a research note on Monday, July 21st. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on AES from $108.00 to $112.00 in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group lowered AES from a "hold" rating to an "underperform" rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $10.00 to $9.00 in a research report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Argus restated a "hold" rating on shares of AES in a research note on Tuesday, May 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have assigned a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, AES currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $24.67.

AES Stock Performance

Shares of AES traded down $0.01 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $12.84. 3,898,484 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 16,023,486. The stock's 50 day simple moving average is $11.82 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.32. The AES Corporation has a twelve month low of $9.46 and a twelve month high of $20.30. The company has a market cap of $9.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.08, a PEG ratio of 1.52 and a beta of 0.96. 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 earnings per share (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 analyst estimates of $2.97 billion. AES had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 8.42%. The company's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that The AES Corporation will post 1.93 earnings per share for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 15th. Investors 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 5.5%. AES's payout ratio is currently 49.30%.

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.