Nordea Investment Management AB Trims Stock Position in The AES Co. (NYSE:AES)

Nordea Investment Management AB reduced its position in shares of The AES Co. (NYSE:AES - Free Report) by 98.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 32,003 shares of the utilities provider's stock after selling 2,833,817 shares during the quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB's holdings in AES were worth $616,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $27,000. Gyon Technologies Capital Management LP purchased a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Resurgent Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in AES during the 4th quarter valued at $34,000. West Tower Group LLC purchased a new position in AES during the 2nd quarter valued at $35,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC increased its position in AES by 55.0% during the 3rd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 2,417 shares of the utilities provider's stock valued at $37,000 after purchasing an additional 858 shares during the period. 93.13% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

AES Stock Up 3.7 %

AES stock traded up $0.61 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $17.25. 10,643,193 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,474,479. The AES Co. has a 1 year low of $11.43 and a 1 year high of $25.74. The firm's 50 day moving average is $16.27 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.53. The stock has a market cap of $12.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.27, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.99 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.42, a current ratio of 0.68 and a quick ratio of 0.61.

AES (NYSE:AES - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 27th. The utilities provider reported $0.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.67 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.36 billion. AES had a net margin of 2.12% and a return on equity of 38.76%. The business's revenue for the quarter was down 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.49 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that The AES Co. will post 1.9 EPS for the current year.

AES Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 15th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, May 1st will be paid a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This represents a $0.69 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, April 30th. AES's dividend payout ratio is currently 209.10%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on AES. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an "overweight" rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research report on Monday. Argus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $25.00 target price on shares of AES in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of AES from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $21.57.

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.